


Tsunderella

by Izzu



Category: Johnny's Entertainment
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-25
Updated: 2010-02-06
Packaged: 2017-12-09 15:09:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 27,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/775625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Izzu/pseuds/Izzu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU. Ryo had never considered his life to be such a happy thing. Perhaps… only when he used to be very young…</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Not So Ordinary

**Author's Note:**

> Aside from the main casts, and supporting characters may or may not be based on other JE casts. Some names may have been mashed together for plot's sakes, but you should be able to tell who's who. Some character traits might be based on the casts or not and plainly made up. Just humour me okay. And hopefully by writing this, I won't have to bear with myself giggling madly in my sleep over the crack that was this fic.

This was not like the usual Cinderella stories that you might read. This was  _not_  the typical story you might have read in the past. Damn it all, it was not even a romantic story or a fantasy story. It was not even magical. So throw that notion behind if you still wanted to read this story. Good, since we were clear on that; let us continue with the story.  
  
From the very beginning, it had always been just the three of them. A father and two sons, happily living together. The mother, died early while the younger brother had only been two years old. So since then the father had raised the two children by himself, taking the role of both parents to both of his children. But as years passed, the father could not help but notice that despite his sons saying that having just one parent was enough for both of them; he realized that they both still needed a mother figure in their lives. So a year later, the father married Toyama Yuko.  
  
Toyama Yuko was not exactly a young woman herself; in fact she was a widow as well with two sons of her own. Considering Yuko was a mother of two already, he had figured that she would not have any trouble managing another two. The two sons, Keiichiro and Shigeaki were not that far in age with his two sons anyway. The oldest was a bit younger than his oldest son, Hideaki and the youngest... well, his youngest son Ryo was older. It should work out, the six of them. It was not as if he himself was not capable of supporting six people, he had a respectable job as an executive of a small business that he had managed by himself. It should have been fine.  
  
It did not turn out that way.  
  
Several years later, the father, Nishizawa Hiroshi had fallen ill. A few months later, the father died. The death of the father had hit the two siblings very badly, especially the youngest son Nishizawa Ryo. But at least the young boy, at the time being eight year old; had the older brother still with him, who was three years older than him. As well as their stepmother and two stepbrothers...  
  
But reality had not been too kind on the brothers. As soon as the period of mourning for the father had ended, the stepmother’s attitude towards the two siblings had changed dramatically. She was no longer the kind mother figure that she had shown to their father when he was still alive. Her two sons as well, suddenly acted as if the two of them had been their worst enemies. Still, to Ryo... it was still fine. Because he still had his older brother with him.  
  
Their father’s will have stated that half of his properties, company and money belonged to his two sons, Hideaki and Ryo. Aside from the profits gained from the company—on which either Hideaki or Ryo would later inherit once they were of age—no one would be able to touch or use any part of the properties owned by Nishizawa Sr. aside from the two sons. The company would be entrusted in the care of current vice president of the small company for the time being. Not saying that his new wife and her sons would not get any penny from the inheritance, that’s where the rest of the half of the money would go. But pertaining to his sons’ inheritance, the only time the money could be withdrawn from their accounts; would be for their care and schooling. Hiroshi’s lawyer had read the will, few days after the father had been buried; but the stepmother never told the details relating to the two brothers to them.  
  
Thus since their father’s death, the two brothers had always lived as if they were just strays picked up by the stepmother despite the home they lived in were theirs and the money supporting them being their father’s. But that had never been so hard for the two boys. Since Hideaki would always be around to protect his brother Ryo. That was why for the earlier part of Ryo’s life, at least they had managed to live a proper life despite being treated as strays by their stepmother and stepbrothers.  
  
Sadly, the bad strings of events in Ryo’s life did not end at that point. In fact, it had gone even worse. Several months before Ryo had his fourteenth birthday, his brother Hideaki had gone out to take his university entrance exam results. Since then, the brother had been missing. There were police reports being made, inquiries into hospitals to see if he has been in an accident; attempts in giving out flyers to find him. Hideaki was never an irresponsible person and leaving his only brother to fend for himself was unthinkable but alas, despite the many efforts; Hideaki was never found.  
  
So that was when Ryo’s life finally took the turn for the worst. He had stopped going to school altogether, to the surprise of classmates and teachers alike. The reasoning had been that because of the missing brother, Ryo had become reclusive and refused to go to school. But the real truth was that the stepmother had disallowed Ryo from furthering his education thus keeping him locked inside his own home. Even worse, he was treated more like a servant by the stepmother and even less than that. Whenever Hiroshi’s former acquaintances paid them a visit to check on Ryo, the stepmother would always made pretence that he had been living well but that’s all to it. In reality, his life had gone straight to hell.  
  
xxx  
  
Three years has passed and Ryo had grown into a very beautiful lad. And the narrator shall stop at that before said person threw a building towards the sky. For some reason, during these three years, Ryo’s growth spurt had went into hyperdrive and made him grow several inches taller; making him look more his age rather than remaining looking like an elementary kid all his life. He was not really that tall but at least not too short. He was still considered short compared to some lads his age. Not that said person was not grateful about his current height, he was... but with such good change coming into his life so did other problems. Since earlier mentioned, Ryo had indeed grown into a handsome young man—and the narrator again apologize as a chair had arrived flying at her—his appearance had attracted  _a lot_  of attention. While he had not minded much of the attention he received outside—he had not been out of the house that often after all—he really minded it when the main harasser towards his newly discovered charms came from none other than his employer. Or the one whom he used to call stepmother.  
  
It was a bit of a hassle really. How did you handle sexual harassment when the culprit was your own stepmother? Lucky though that the woman was not his real mother, or he could not imagine how  _that_ would be like. So yeah, it was a bit troublesome. Most of the times when he spent his time cleaning the house, doing every single housework imaginable—since there was nothing else that he could do anyway—he had to always be alert to his surroundings for fear his stepmother would suddenly appear behind him to molest him. How would you feel if while you had been so busy preparing the food to feed four people and suddenly had your butt molested aggressively from behind? Having been stared hungrily all day was nothing compared to that. How could that be worse if several times you could not help noticing eyes watching your back just when you were about to take off your clothes to bathe or waking up to realize your stepmother was beside you, touching your body and attempting to do some unspeakable things to you. Luckily his instincts always worked for him. Aside from the unlucky times when he would risk scalding himself with hot oil or water—or bulks of heavy load crashing onto him—to defend himself, he had always been able to kick away his step mother from him before any real damage was done.  
  
So that was how he had managed to develop his  _tsundere_  personality all these years. It might give him some bad image of its own, but at least it worked in his defence and ward off all those potential molesters out there bent on dragging him to submit underneath them. It only bothered him a bit, since after realizing that there was no way she could get her hands on him; his stepmother had grown even harsher on him. Not that it mattered to him, but most of his clothes were of smaller sizes and he was not actually small sized anymore. The clothes that he did have were mostly old clothes thrown at him when his two stepbrothers had grown tired of their wardrobe. He did not complained, anything was better than prancing naked all around the house. God, that would attract even  _more_  weirdos into the house!  
  
Strangely, some nights... he would hear his bedroom door being knocked. And while he saw no one standing behind the door after that, he always found small bundles of clothes placed before his door. Most of the clothes had used to belong to his older brother, strangely. Since he thought his stepmother had burned, threw or sold everything that had used to belong to his older brother when the police had given up the search; already assuming that he was dead. Ryo had wondered who could be the one sending the things to him. Because he had not just received those clothes at times. Sometimes... it had been some dried foodstuffs behind his bedroom door. Sometimes it had been medicine when he had become sick. Sometimes it was some old books that he found a bit interesting to read in secret. He had long been disallowed to continue his studies so he used to envy his stepbrothers for being able to do so and even manage to enrol into some good university and high schools. How nice... he wondered what it had been like, going to high school and universities. He used to hear many stories before... and his brother Hideaki often told him about some of the clubs that he had joined. How nice...  
  
He missed his older brother...  
  
And then one night, he opened his door to find an old acoustic guitar lying on the floor. It surprised him greatly as he quickly sneaked it in and hide it under his bed, along with the rest of his stuffs that was not meant to be in his possession.  
  
It made him wonder. Who was it that had given him these things in secret? It couldn’t be his brother... if his brother was nearby he could have just take him away from this rotten house. It couldn’t be his old friends from middle school, they didn’t even know where he had lived. His stepmother had been so clear about not letting anyone know that his brother and him having lived inside this house. Of course, there were his father’s old friends. But they couldn’t be the ones sneaking up into his house late at night to give him things. Aside from the fact they had stopped checking up on him for some years, even they did not know about what kind of life he really had in this household.  
  
Then... could it be? Either one of his stepbrothers were behind these kind gestures? It couldn’t be! Those two had hated him and his brother for a very long time! Why should they act nicely to him anyway? But that notion was the most likely to happen. Could it be?  
  
Could his stepbrothers not be as bad as what he used to think they were?  
  
Somehow, Ryo wondered if this little glimmer of hope in his heart was something that he could depend on...


	2. The Crying Sun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Patience. Sometimes... you had to wonder just how far the limit can go.

The loud bang on his door startled him so much that Ryo almost fell over from his bed.  
  
“Ryo! Come out this instance!”  
  
Ryo froze. That was his stepmother’s voice! Why—Ryo finally noticed the old alarm clock he had on his small desk to realize that it was already ten o’ clock in the morning! No wonder someone was pissed. Ryo got off the bed, noticing the state of undress—or more like, the lack of any  _dress_ —he was in. Thank goodness he had thought of putting up extra bolts on his doors. If his stepmother could still enter this room freely, he’d probably be kissing his virginity good bye.  
  
Not like he hadn’t had that thought every single day in this house.  
  
Ryo hurriedly grabbed some clothes and put it on him before grabbing his keys to open the door.  
  
“I’m coming out already!” he replied loudly as his hands shook while trying to unlock the padlock he placed on the door.  
  
Ryo barely got his keys inside his pants pocket and opened the door when his stepmother had pulled him out aggressively, dragging him downstairs towards the kitchen. Ryo cursed under his breath every time he almost tripped on his steps. Just as they reached the kitchen, without warning; Ryo felt himself being thrown towards the kitchen cabinet. Now, not saying that Ryo was a weakling but having been dragged out like that and moving at that same speed while being thrown off from that momentum was possible in those circumstances, you know? Yes, he knew about momentums, inertia and all. He might have not been able to go to school, but didn’t mean he’s stupid. He had those old books to read...  
  
Ryo felt the breath in him being forced out of him as his head hit the marble cabinet very hard. He winced in pain as he could barely hear his stepmother shouting.  
  
“How dare you laze around? Did you forget the amount of work you’re supposed to do today? See all those plates and everything in the sink! Unwashed! And how long would you want to let them remain like that? Ages? There are still laundries to do, and cleaning to do—and for crying out loud! Go prepare food, you imbecile! Just because you’re my stepson doesn’t mean that you can freeload here!”  
  
Freeload? FREELOAD? When all of this time  _he_  was the one doing most of the housework in this house while she sat around enjoying life and prancing around the city, flirting on every single men she could get her hands on? Him...  _freeloading?_  It’s not his fault that the sink was filled with stuffs again. He didn’t just stand guard at the kitchen all the time to make sure everything was cleaned. And people just dumped things into the sink without bothering to clean them. Was that _his_  fault as well?  
  
Ryo would have liked to spat all those bottled rage inside of him if he was feeling particularly rebellious. But no, right now it was better for him to keep himself alive for the time being. Instead, he just spat out angrily, “All right, bitch! I’ll settle the chores at once after this! Can you just fucking get out of this kitchen now?”  
  
Ryo lifted his head towards her as blood started to flow from the cut on his left eye. He glared at her with rage as his stepmother backed away from him a few step.  
  
“Ah, Ryo-kun! I’m sorry... I didn’t mean to—here, let me put something on that cut...” Yuko started to say as Ryo slapped her hands away.  
  
“Get out! Don’t touch me! I don’t want any part of you touching me!” Ryo shouted again, crying now as his tears of anger were mixed with the blood on the side of his face. The older woman complied as she walked away, leaving Ryo still lying on the kitchen floor beside the marble cabinet. Slowly, Ryo wiped his tears away as he pulled himself up. He laughed mirthlessly, the sink was not even half full. Yet, he received that kind of lashing as well as this cut on his head and the following headache. Sometimes he wondered why he even bothered staying in this house—oh, right. He stayed here because this was where most of his memories of his real parents and brother had remained. There were a lot of things in this house that was precious to him. That bitch would probably throw it all away if he had as much leave this place, not that she would even allow it. He was as much as her cash cow in that sense where she would use him to convince his father’s friends to give her money when she ran out of it.  
  
That made him wonder. Did he still have any other relatives outside of this supposed one that he had? If only that were possible...  
  
Ryo slowly washed the dishes clean as he set them aside. He went upstairs as he grabbed his towel and fresh clothes before heading to the bathroom. He placed the clothes in one basket and striped and placed the worn clothes in another. Ryo glanced towards the mirror. He gasped, that was one big gash! No wonder his stepmother stepped away from him. He sighed. Luckily, he still had some of that first aid kit stuff in his room, courtesy of his unknown benefactor.  
  
Aaa... that would be some big gash to cover.  
  
Ryo shrugged to himself as he walked towards the bathtub nearby, filling it with warm water. These kinds of abuse were not  _that_  unusual for him. Ryo glanced towards his own body. Most of the injuries he had sustained in the past had completely healed without leaving any trace. Some scars still remained. Ryo stared at the burn mark on his arm when his stepmother had hit him with a still hot frying pan when he accidentally burned his cooking. That had been a few weeks ago, he snickered not slightly amused. He had often heard child abuse stories on television involving small children, he never thought he would be part of that kind of story at this age. Well, there were those domestic abuse things. DV... for short, right? Looking at his arm again, he sighed for the umpteenth time.  
  
He never be getting any chance to wear those kinds of sleeveless shirts at the rate, could he?  
  
Ryo stepped into the bathtub as the foams started to spread all over him after he had poured some of those bubble bath liquid into the tub. Ah, it felt so nice. For some reason, he always loved taking his bubble baths regardless of how old he gets. It might be childish, but at least he still had some place in this house that he could call his sanctuary.  
  
After some time, he could hear his stepmother shouting again downstairs.  _Time to get out of the tub_ , he thought as he washed, dried and dressed himself. Oh, don’t forget about brushing his teeth! Unlike the narrator who tend to even forget to eat her lunch, he would never forget to brush his teeth.  
  
He looked up again towards the mirror. Ah, time to patch that cut on his forehead...  
  
xxx  
  
Ryo twitched his nose at the lingeries inside the basket as he took out a shirt to hang on the cloth lines. That was another kind of sexual harassment from his stepmother to try to get him into her influence. How lame. It’s not like he had gotten any kind of reaction just by touching her things...  
  
Ryo focused himself too much on his chores that he barely noticed it when an elderly woman called out to him. He had blinked at her, the woman was kinda familiar to him. He was not sure if she had lived around the neighbourhood—she probably is—since the old lady always often seen around the area and always found the time to greet him whenever he was outside the house.  
  
“What happened to your head, dear? Did you fell on the steps or something?” asked the old lady as Ryo shrugged.  
  
“It’s something like that...” he replied before his stepmother walked out to explain the ‘accident’. His stepmother had stood so close beside him that she even took the chance to place a hand behind his back. It took Ryo’s every will to keep himself still from pushing his stepmother away. The old lady nodded her head as she walked off. Ryo wondered if the old lady knew anything about what had happened inside this house. He wondered if he could seek her for help.  
  
His stepmother turned towards him as she gave him a horrid look.  
  
“Don’t get any funny ideas!” she said before heading back inside.  
  
Biting his lips, Ryo went back to finishing his laundry chores...  
  
xxx  
  
Ryo pushed the door to his bedroom close behind him. It was almost three o’ clock in the afternoon, yet he hadn’t had any lunch yet. At least his chores were done with and he hadn’t any more strength to spare by facing his stepmother for the rest of the day. He sighed—he had been doing this a lot—as he headed towards his bed. But before he could even reach his bed, everything around him suddenly blacked out as Ryo fainted onto the floor.  
  
xxx  
  
“Ryo... are you inside, Ryo—!”  
  
The young man gasped aloud as he saw the collapsed form on the ground. He turned Ryo over to check his pulse and was relieved to see that he was still alive. He still swore when he noticed the bandage above Ryo’s left eye. Ryo’s face was pale, probably because he hadn’t yet eaten anything for the day. The young man gently lifted Ryo into his arm and placed him onto his bed. Ryo was still light-weight compared to his own. For some reason, he didn’t like that.  
  
After securing Ryo on the bed and covered his body with a warm blanket, the young man walked out of the room; locking the door as he exited.  
  
Hours later as Ryo woke up; he had wondered how he ended up lying on his bed when he clearly had no memories of doing so. He slowly got up, noticed that even his door was locked; before looking towards his desk to see a tray with a bowl of porridge and a glass of water. There were even some pills placed near the glass. Ryo frowned—even the bandage on his head had been changed!—as he wondered who could it be the one doing this for him.  
  
But one thing was certain; his benefactor definitely was living inside this house with him.


	3. Please Show Me That Smile

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A single smile. Heaven knows how one smile could brighten up a whole day...

Ryo smiled, somehow today felt a lot better than yesterday. Perhaps it was because of the medicine he took last night, perhaps it was because of the porridge he ate before that; something... it lightened his mood somehow. Perhaps because it had been a while since he felt himself being loved. No, that was not true. Even when his father or brother was no longer beside him, there was always those people he had passed by in the neighbourhood or at the market that made him feel that he was not alone in this world. No, it was more a feeling that he thought he had lost. The feeling of him being loved and cared for inside his own home. It really was such a longed for emotion.  
  
And today, the day had not start as badly too. His stepmother had gone out early. After finishing all of the chores in the house, Ryo had left to the market as he noticed a note with some money left behind; telling him to restock the groceries. Even if it was only another errand given by his stepmother, Ryo did not mind it. Restocking the groceries meant that he could go out of the house and that was the very thing that he liked to do. He disliked first and foremost to remain in the house with his stepmother around, even worse when he was alone by himself. It scared him, being alone.  
  
If people called him a sissy because of this, he could not be bothered about it. It was not as if those people would understand his circumstances.  
  
“What happened to your forehead, Ryo-chan?” A young man named Shibutani greeted him as Ryo looked into his shop.  
  
Ryo was checking over one of the cabbages as he shrugged and looked up towards him.  
  
“I slipped,” was the short reply.  
  
Shibutani nodded his head at that reply. “You sure had a lot of accidents. Here...” he picked up some of the freshest spinach he had as he stuffed them alongside the other vegetables Ryo had picked. Ryo looked at him in surprise.  
  
“What accident—eh, Suba-san... you don’t have to... I still have other things to buy—“ Ryo stuttered as Shibutani shrugged it away.  
  
“It’s on me, honestly... you needed to have more food stuffed into your little tummy,” he said as he patted Ryo’s head. “And don’t give me that kind of reply, I’m not that unconcerned over my favourite customers...” he said again as he nodded towards his right arm.  
  
Ryo almost cried out as he hastily adjusted his sleeves to cover the burn mark on his arm.  
  
“Err... here’s the money for the vegetables,” he said as Shibutani took it and gave him his change. Just as Ryo was about to leave, Shibutani stopped him.  
  
“Ryo-chan, tell me honestly. Did you have any problem at home?”  
  
Ryo blinked at him, before slowly shaking his head. He smiled before bowing at him politely.  
  
“I’m fine. Thank you for your concern though... and the spinach.”  
  
“I’m telling you... Ryo-chan, there are people around here that cares about you... you know.”  
  
Ryo-chan bit his lips to prevent them from quivering as he nodded. “I know,” he said simply before excusing himself.  
  
Watching the young lad leave, Shibutani Subaru could not help but worry...  
  
xxx  
  
Along the way through the market, Ryo encountered almost similar things. Luckily, because of Suba-san... he had been more careful of accidentally showing the burn mark on his right arm. But he could do nothing about the bandage over his right eye, which because of the position it had been; made his left eye to have that permanent squint. So aside from the grocery stuffs that he intended to get for the day, he ended up bringing home double the amount due to the fact many of the sellers and shopkeepers there were very concerned about his health. Somehow, he was glad to have at least a bit of strength in his heart. Or else, he could have just broken down at the market and might as well blurt everything to everyone. It's not that he did not need some help to make his life better but first and foremost, he did not want to have been forced to leave the house. He could face much injustice in his life, suffer even more hurt on his body—but he could not stand the thought of losing the house that had so many memories. A bit selfish of him, but he did not want to be saved so easily just like that. He was not after all, some kind of damsel-in-distress waiting for some prince to come save him...  
  
Ryo heaved a sigh of relief when he returned home. His stepmother did not seem to be home just yet so he could at least relax for a while. He slowly headed towards the kitchen to stuff some of the groceries as he heard hurried steps coming from behind him.  
  
“Ryo!”  
  
Ryo jumped as he let out the most girlish cry. He turned around in alarm to find Shige looking at him warily. Shige swore aloud as he walked towards him. Instinctively, Ryo backed away from him before Shige grabbed his arm to not let him escape. Ryo froze as he dropped the plastic bag he was holding and closed his eyes in fear. Just when he thought he was safe from his stepmother today...  
  
“My god! That was a big gash! Why didn’t you make a report to the police? I know that she’s your stepmother but—"  
  
His older stepbrother came by a few moments later as Keiichiro shook his head.  
  
“Shige! Can’t you at least be more gentle? God... you probably scared him to bits!” exclaimed the older brother as he brushed by and gently ushered Ryo out of the kitchen.  
  
“You didn’t tell me that his injuries was THAT bad—” Shige started as Keiichiro ignored him. Ryo turned around to get the groceries that had been dropped to the floor as Keiichiro stopped him.  
  
“It’s all right, you don’t have to worry about that. We’ll take care of the dinner ourselves, you just sit tight over here...” Kei said as Ryo stared at him blankly.  
  
“Eeh?” was the only thing that Ryo could say as Shige popped his head out of the kitchen.  
  
“No ‘eeeh!’ on us! How long did you want to be mum’s punching bag?”  
  
Keiichiro stood up, glaring at him.  
  
“Oi Shige! Shut your flaps up and stuff those groceries into the fridge. And figure out what we’re having for dinner...” he cried as he returned his attention towards Ryo.  
  
“Uwahh! These are a LOT of groceries! How much money did mum left you?” Shige cried again from the kitchen as Ryo muttered softly.  
  
“Some of the shop owners and stall owners gave them to me for free...”  
  
“Did you hear that? He got them for free because everyone was worried sick about this kid. Now shut up and do your work!” Kei turned back towards Ryo as he inspected the wound on Ryo’s forehead. “Ah, I see you haven’t changed the bandage yet. Wait here... I’ll get the kit.” Kei said softly before heading back upstairs. Ryo just silently watch his stepbrother walk away as he stayed put on the sofa.  
  
So the person who had taken care of him last night was Keii-nicchan? But... didn’t they hate him and his brother so much?  
  
Kei returned with the kit as he started to take off the bandages on Ryo’s forehead. He flinched as Kei started dabbing the antiseptics all over the wound above his left eye.  
  
“Why? Didn’t both of you hate us so much? Why... do so much... for me?”  
  
Kei glanced back towards Ryo as he gave him his kind look.  
  
“We didn’t hate you. We only acted like that because mum told us to. But back then, Hide was still around so we thought it’s okay for the time being. And then...  _that_  happened. We couldn’t do much openly in front of mother... so the only thing we could do was to take care of you secretly. Here...” Kei gently placed long gauze over the wound as he secured it in place.  
  
“Now you’re good as new...” he started to say as Ryo suddenly burst into tears. He sighed as he pulled Ryo into an embrace and patted his back. “Now, now... everything’s all right now...”  
  
xxx  
  
“Honestly... this has gone too far! Regardless of everything... we’re still the ones that had arrived into his family. Not the other way around! But now... he’s like a prisoner inside his own home that was rightfully his. If there’s anyone to be blamed for this, it should have been us. Yet... the one being punished was  _him_.”  
  
Keiichiro shook his head at his brother. “Hush... he might hear us, and mum might come home. Honestly... this was why I preferred to leave you out of this—“  
  
“Like hell you would! I don’t want to lose out to you—“  
  
“Heee—is that why you’ve secretly given Ryo your old guitar and school books? How admirable—“  
  
“Aaa! Shut up, Ryo would hear!”  
  
Keiichiro peeked his head out into the dining hall as he smiled.  
  
“No... he wouldn’t. Poor thing had exhausted himself out. I guess you’d have to carry that box by yourself, Shige—“  
  
“Eeeeh?” Shige exclaimed as he walked out of the kitchen, carrying the box filled with the ‘extra’ groceries Ryo had brought home. Most of it was fresh fruits or cakes and bread, foodstuffs that you can practically keep it outside without worrying that it gets spoiled. Those people at the market district sure adored his stepbrother. Somehow he felt jealous about it.  
  
Kei sighed as he watched Ryo asleep on the dining table, his empty bowl sat not far from his head. Perhaps he—no, they—had overestimated this young man to be able to take care of himself. He slowly lifted Ryo up as the young lad started to stir.  
  
“Unn?” he moaned before realizing that Kei had carried him on his back. “Keii-nicchan? Uh... I’m awake now. You can put me down...”  
  
“It’s all right. You’re still sleepy, aren’t you? Just relax...” Keii said as Ryo wrapped his arm around his neck. He felt his heart clenched at that gesture. Despite Ryo’s appearance and him acting strong and grown up, right now... it felt like Ryo was still a small boy. As if his mind had remained a child while he physically had grown to be a young man. Having that kind of thought suddenly, old guilt started to gnaw into his conscience for not being able to stand up against his mother for Ryo’s sake.  
  
He blinked as he saw a hand waving in front of him.  
  
“Earth to K, earth to K—honestly, where did you go inside your head?” Shige scolded as he dropped the box into one corner. “We’re already inside Ryo’s room. You can drop him now, you know?” he added as Keii gasped aloud and lowered Ryo onto the bed.  
  
“Ah, sorry... I was a bit distracted.” he explained as Shige continued musing.  
  
“The room’s a bit cluttered here... even if you can say it was pretty neat. I guess we had a lot to do if we have to hide this food stash inside this room—"  
  
“Ah! I have to agree on that—“  
  
Ryo blinked at both of them as he watched his two stepbrothers ran around his room to reorganize his things even more neatly. Before he could think about it much, the room had become a bit more spacious—some of his things had been stacked neatly in racks (that used to belong in Keii’s room)—with enough room for other things. Somehow, Ryo felt as if he was still in a dream...  
  
Keiichiro re-entered the room right after as he told them that their mother (Ryo’s stepmother) had finally came home. Shige shrugged to himself before walking out to greet his mother as Keiichiro walked up towards Ryo.  
  
“Lock the door after this. I’ll tell mum that you had gone to bed early because we made you overworked or something. Just rest, okay? Don’t you worry about the other things... let us handle the rest.” he said as he walked out of the room.  
  
Ryo did as told as he sighed. He walked up to his desk and pulled out an old exercise book from one of the drawers as he sat on his chair to write.  
  
xxx _  
  
_ _Nii..._  
  
 _Something incredible happened today.  
   
_ _I’ve found out who was it that had been watching over me all these while._  
  
 _Keii-nii and Shige were still so kind... they hadn’t changed one bit._  
  
 _Somehow..._  
  
 _Somehow nii..._  
  
 _It felt as if you’re still right here beside me._  
  
xxx  
  
Setting aside his pen and diary, Ryo got back to his bed as he closed his eyes to sleep for the night. _  
  
“ _Oyasumi...”__


	4. Puzzle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Numerous pieces that might be meaningless but when you could match the two pieces together and another... wasn't that what makes puzzles so interesting?

The door creaked open slowly as the stranger walked stealthily towards the only bed inside the room. The bed had been occupied as the person continued to sleep soundly. Unaware of his surroundings, he had not made any move as slender hands unbuttoned his shirt one by one and bared his chest. Soon after, the hands moved lower... as they pulled down the fly of the young man’s pants, sliding the piece of clothing off; baring the legs for all to see. The hands trailed over the young man’s chest, his stomach... and lower...  
  
The person slid onto the bed, adjusting her legs in between his legs as she lowered herself; running one hand over the young man’s face before cupping his chin, lifting his face towards her as the other hand supported her weight. Suddenly, to what seemed like ages; the woman lowered herself even more as the distance between their mouths drew closer...  
  
xxx  
  
Ryo gave a cry as he sat upright at once, his body shaking all over. He glanced down towards himself as he confirmed that he was still dressed, his brother’s old pyjama clung onto his body like skin. He had been sweating pretty badly. That was some kind of nightmare! It was either his stepmother had spooked him one too many or he had a subconscious desire to have himself be screwed by his stepmother. He fervently hoped that it was not the latter.  
  
His heart had not stopped thumping madly. He really needed to calm himself and forget that that nightmare ever happened. It would not help at all to scare himself silly over something that he did not and should not want to happen.  
  
Ryo glanced towards the alarm clock.  
  
5.00 A.M.  
  
It was too early! Certainly not his usual time to wake up from sleep. Hopefully, this did not start to become a habit.  
  
Ryo jumped off the bed as he grabbed his towels and fresh clothes—like hell he would walk around his house with  _just_  his towel—and headed straight to the bathroom.  
  
xxx  
  
It has been two weeks. Two weeks ever since he had found out the truth about his two—still very kind—stepbrothers. Somehow, in these two weeks, despite his stepmother’s attitude had not changed much towards him; the woman had not tried to approach him or hit him as usual. Not sure if it was because he had been trying his best not to make her mad or it was because of his two stepbrothers had been alternating between themselves to stay at home or the neighbours making themselves heard over their concerns for his wellbeing; but it seemed that the woman was keeping her distance from him.  
  
Whatever is was, it had been good for him. Still, he should not be letting his guard down just yet. It probably was some kind of a calm before a storm. Danger might just be lurking everywhere around him, waiting just for the right time to sneak up from behind him unawares.  
  
This was the reason why he had been strangely quiet at breakfast; when he had gone to serve food for his stepmother and stepbrothers. Keiichiro snapped loudly at him suddenly, making him jump.  
  
“Sit down, Ryo! And eat!”  
  
Ryo cautiously sat on the empty chair beside him as he took his bowl of rice with him. He leered towards his stepmother as she did not react strangely against him eating with them at the dining table. He heaved a sigh of relief…  
  
Without warning, Keii dumped another scoop of rice so that his bowl was properly full before lumping some of the dishes he had cooked earlier in his bowl. Ryo stared wide-eyed at his bowl before looking at his stepbrother, dumbfounded. Before he could ask about this open show of friendliness from him, Keii snapped.  
  
“Get your strength up! I’m dragging you out today to help me at the college—“ he said as he continued elaborating about this project he was in and having to do some hard labour and such—saying it was such an annoying task. Might as well get some  _slave_  to do his hard work for him. His stepmother did not seem to mind as Ryo wondered if this was something that Keii-nii had cooked up to get him out of the house.  
  
Thinking about that, he barely could keep himself from smiling as he stuffed his food in his mouth hurriedly.  
  
xxx  
  
“T-Thank you… Keii-nii, I think? Though… it’s fine really, you don’t have to make up an excuse to stepmother just because you don’t want to let me stay at home with her…”  
  
Keii shrugged. “Nah… I don’t mind. Besides, I bet you’ve never been out outside our neighbourhood area ever since Hide went missing. The outside world to you might seem alien to you now—“  
  
“Outside world… heh,” muttered Ryo under his breath as he looked around him. True enough, it has been a long time since he actually wandered this far from house. How things have changed…  
  
“Actually I haven’t had any classes or activities today—“ Keii suddenly said as Ryo looked at him, puzzled. The older lad smiled. “Truthfully said, I actually wanted to take you out to get yourself checked. It’s been a while since you had that cut on your head. Although, it had almost healed now… I wanted to make sure. And I wanted to get you a full medical check-up—“  
  
Ryo suddenly appeared alarmed.  
  
“Is it really all right… I don’t think I should—“  
  
“It’s fine,” Keii reassured him. “Nothing bad would happen to you, I promise. It’s just something I wanted to make sure…”  
  
Ryo nodded his head slowly as he let Keii lead him to cross the road.  _It felt strangely safe, having someone hold your hands_ …  
  
At another crossing, somehow Keii’s hand involuntarily let go of his own as many other pedestrians surrounded both of them when they crossed the street. When the crowd had cleared, Ryo looked around in alarm to find Keii nowhere in sight. Ryo started to feel panic as he found it hard to breathe. _  
  
Keii-nii was gone! I’m by myself...  
  
 _What… what should I do?_  
  
_ Ryo was so disoriented about his current situation that he did not notice the approaching figure behind him until it was too late.  
  
"Oof!” cried the other person as both of them fell onto the pavement.  
  
“Ahh… I’m sorry—“ Ryo started to say as he fumbled to help the other person pick up his things. He hastily stacked the scattered papers as the other person paused to stare at him.  
  
Handing the papers back to him, Ryo flushed as he realized that the other lad was staring at him. The other person hastily apologised to him as Ryo waved the concerns away.  
  
“Are you lost?” asked the other lad as Ryo stuttered.  
  
“I…I—“  
  
“Ryo! Thank goodness I’ve found you!” Kei’s voice suddenly came not far from them as he ran up towards them, pulling Ryo into an embrace with relief. “I thought that I’ve lost you for good—or that you’ve got into an accident when we got separated! It would be disastrous if you ended up into one just when I was about to take you to the hospital—“  
  
It was then that he noticed the other lad as he started thanking him.  
  
“Thank you, kid… to happen to meet this guy—“  
  
“No… no, it was just accidental—“  
  
“—regardless, I am grateful. Ryo-chan was not that familiar with the city so I am really worried if he got lost. Thank you very much,” he said again as the lad nodded blankly. Keii excused himself as he helped Ryo back on his feet and left.  
  
Gathering up his things as he watched the two people leave, Yamashita Tomohisa cocked his head out of curiosity.  
  
“Ryo-chan… was it?” he mused to himself.  
  
xxx  
  
Ryo frowned by himself as he sat and waited in the hospital as the doctor checking on him earlier had a long talk with Keii-nii. The check-up was not  _really_  unpleasant, but it got pretty uncomfortable with the doctor constantly swore under his breath—yeah, the doctor was male. Thankfully—whenever he saw some old scars he had or his forehead or something. The doctor had given him some stitch on his forehead—reason why the cut couldn’t properly heal up all these times—as well as slapped some sort of band-aids all over his old scars, saying that it would help reduce the scars and ease the pain. Honestly, now he felt like some sort of a wrapped gift! And why did Keii-nii took so long to chat up the doctor?  
  
“So you  _are_  here…” a cheery voice came up from his side as Ryo looked up towards the person. It was the same lad he had bumped to earlier! The young man smiled as he noticed that Ryo still remembered him. He held out his hand as Ryo took it cautiously.  
  
“Yamashita Tomohisa. Yamapi, for short. Pleased to meet you,” he said as Ryo nodded.  
  
“I’m Ryo. Nishizawa… Ryo. That’s a long name you have!”  
  
Yamapi grinned. “And your name was really Ryo… I really thought it was a shorter name for something else.  _Ryo-chan!_ ”  
  
Ryo chuckled. It has been a while since he could talk with somebody else this casually. It felt nice somehow. Made him wonder what kind of life he could have had if his life had been a lot more  _normal_.  
  
“It’s because I used to be very short. So that name really stuck—” Ryo glanced back towards him as he noticed Pi had a guitar case with him. “You’re a musician?"  
  
Pi blinked before realizing what he meant. He shook his head. “Ah… no, I’m not. It’s just a plain hobby of mine—I’m still in high school. Do you want to learn to play?”  
  
Ryo thought of the old guitar Shige gave him as he shrugged. “I’m not sure if we can see each other again like this. High school was it… how nice—“  
  
“Hmm?” Pi asked, puzzled by the reaction as Ryo shook his head.  
  
“It’s nothing…,” he started to say as he noticed Keii coming out of the doctor’s room. “Ah! There’s my brother now. I’ve got to go… nice to get to know you, Pi-san. I really hope that we could see each other again next time,” Ryo said again before running back towards his stepbrother.  
  
Now alone by himself, Tomohisa sighed to himself.  _What a peculiar person,_  he thought as he somehow could not fathom as to why he felt drawn towards Ryo. Somehow, from the earlier conversation they had… he seemed to sense there were more to Ryo than meets the eye. Somehow, he was curious to find out more about this interesting person.  
  
Grinning to himself, he picked up his guitar case and folder to leave the hospital.


	5. Beautiful Eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pi still could not stop thinking about that young man he had stumbled to the day before.

That time, Ryo had looked at him as if he was about to do something that could hurt him. He really acted as if at the very presence of himself, that he would be punished. What kind of joke was this? Ryo was older than him by almost a  _year_. Instead of him treating Ryo with respect since he had been the younger, it was the other way around. And that also had been out of fear.  
  
Somehow, he was unsure how to react to that.  
  
Although now, even after Ryo had found out the truth... he still had not been able to relax in that house. How many times, when he was at home... Shige noticed how Ryo had been acting very cautious. Of course at times, he would still rebel and scream at his mother whenever his mother tried to make him do something Ryo did not want. But most of the times, Ryo had always been restless in that house.  
  
And even though there had been no more big incident happening at home since that day, Shige could not help noticing at times how Ryo would limp for a few days sometimes. Or there could be a new cut on his arm another day. Anyhow, it was hard for him  _not_ to worry for his stepbrother.  
  
Wonder how Keii was handling this...  
  
“Toyama-kun...? Toyama-kun? Are you still in this class or not?” Miyake-sensei suddenly spoke as Shige snapped back to reality. Apologizing for his behaviour, Shige sat back on his chair as he reluctantly tried to forget about Ryo for a while and focus on the lessons.  
  
xxx  
  
Pi sighed to himself as he stared blankly towards the sky. _  
  
Nishizawa Ryo… was it?_  
  
Not sure why… he could not seem to keep from thinking about that young man he had stumbled into yesterday. His first class yesterday had been PE, so he had thought of getting to class a bit late for the day. He did not feel like doing any kinds of sports activities yesterday anyway. Who would have thought he would have another reason to skip class?  
  
That Ryo person, he seemed to be around his age. Maybe a bit older… he did have that kind of feel, despite he seemed to be a bit short. Then again, that older brother of his… seemed to be treating Ryo-san as if he was still a small child. Strange. And that bandage on his head, that almost covered his left eyebrow fully; it did not seem to be a normal injury.  
  
Pi shook his head. Why did it bother him so much? Could it be of the strange manner Ryo had acted? The peculiar things that he had spoke?  
  
“There you are, Yama-kun! We’ve been wondering where you’ve been wandering…” cried one voice as Pi turned around to see who had called him. He shrugged to himself as it had only been Tegoshi, Ohkura and Masuda.  
  
Tegoshi sighed. “Answer when you’re being called, Pi-chan! Jin had been looking for you… but he’s lazy to look for you so here we are.”  
  
Pi grinned. “You guys shouldn’t have bothered then. It’s not like I’m running away after the break is over.”  
  
“So what are you doing here, Yama-kun?” Ohkura asked as Pi shrugged.  
  
“I was wondering about some guy I met yesterday… Ryo-chan. He had a cute name…,” Pi snickered to himself as Masuda turned towards Tegoshi curiously, as the lad had become quiet suddenly.  
  
“Ryo… was his name Nishizawa Ryo-tan, Pi-chan?” cried Tegoshi in alarm as the three boys stared at him in surprise.  
  
“Err… yeah. How did you know that was his name, Tesshi?” exclaimed Pi as Tegoshi gasped.  
  
“He’s still around… I thought—it has been so long since I’ve heard about him.” Tegoshi started saying, as if he almost could not believe himself. “No… then that means, that time... what Hina-chan had been talking about… could it really be Ryo-tan?”  
  
Now, even Ohkura and Masuda were interested as Pi spoke again. “What is it? Is there some problem with that guy or something?” he asked as Tegoshi shook his head.  
  
“No,” he said as he apologised to the three of them. “It’s not like that. During middle school… Ryo-tan and I had been classmates. Ryo-tan had always been a quiet person… shy too, so he only had really few close friends. You can say we’re quite close… you see? And then one day, he stopped coming to school. Everyone… even the teachers were puzzled about it but we couldn’t find out why. Since we didn’t even know where he lived… or anything much about his family.”  
  
“Ah… was this that person you’ve mentioned last time, Tegochi?” Masuda asked as he nodded. “That’s strange. Aren’t you supposed to give your address to the school when you’re applying for it? Why the school didn’t have any contacts of him?”  
  
Tegoshi just sighed. “I don’t know. What I’ve heard… was that the address and contacts in the school records weren’t the actual address that Ryo-tan had lived in. Not sure if they had moved or it had been wrong from the beginning, but it really baffled the teachers. They had been saying it’s because of his brother… but they never heard it actually from Ryo-tan himself.”  
  
“What happened to his brother?” Pi asked again as Tegoshi shrugged.  
  
“He went missing. Ryo-tan had been so close to him ever since his father had died few years earlier. That’s why when he was absent for a few days later, we thought nothing about it. And then… suddenly there was this request about him quitting school.”  
  
“Brother? But yesterday… I saw him with his older brother. The guy had been looking so worried when he thought Ryo had gone missing—“  
  
“Was the brother a tall guy and looked like a hannya?” Tegoshi suddenly asked as Ohkura slapped his head for calling people names. Pi blinked at the description.  
  
“Yes, so—“  
  
“That’s his older stepbrother. His father remarried a few years earlier. The one that went missing was his _real_  brother. Seriously… it  _was_  him! How was he—Pi-chan, when you met him?”  
  
Pi shrugged. “He’s pretty much the same as you’ve described him to be, quiet… and a bit shy. It kind of puzzled me when the stepbrother had arrived and worried about him. As if he had never been out of the city before. He had some really big bandage on the left side of his forehead. Come to think, he did looked a bit frail. The brother had been taking him towards the nearby hospital after all—“  
  
Tegoshi went quiet, as if he was thinking about something. Ohkura laughed nervously as the atmosphere seemed a bit tense around them.  
  
“Aha… don’t tell me this old friend of yours was involved in some kind of abuse case?” he said as Masuda hissed at him for making such a lousy joke.  
  
“That wouldn’t be so far off… Ryo-tan after all, ever since his father had died… he never did talk about his family much. The only times when he did was when he had been talking about his father… or his big brother. And Hina-chan did said something had been bothering Suba-san, the grocer that he had worked part time for. Come to think… why did I never think of this before?” Tegoshi mused as Pi shrugged.  
  
“Whatever it is, we’ll have to discuss it later. Break’s over.” He said as the bell started to ring.  
  
xxx  
  
“Ah! That reminds me!” Tegoshi suddenly exclaimed as the four of them were about to leave class. “If I’m not wrong… Ryo-tan’s other stepbrother studied here too. What was his stepmother’s surname… ah! Toyama!”  
  
“What’s this all about? All I’m hearing these few hours had been Ryo this and that, stepbrother this… stepmother that—are you trying to write a real life Cinderella story, Tegoshi?”  
  
Suddenly Pi’s other friend Jin joined the four as Tegoshi made a face at them. “This was no joke, you idiot!” he cried as Pi and Massu hastily tried to calm them down as Ohkura shrugged at them.  
  
“Come on… what’s the stepbrother’s name? We’ll go look for him.” He said as that distracted Tegoshi for a moment.  
  
“Let’s see, I think his name had been Shige… or something—“, he mused aloud as Massu cocked his head.  
  
“I think I heard there’s a Shigeaki in class 2-B. Wanna bet his surname was Toyama?”” he started to say as Tegoshi grabbed his arm and dashed off.  
  
“Come on! We might miss him!” he hollered as the remaining three finally ran to catch up to them.  
  
xxx  
  
Shige frowned as he glanced behind him. He thought he heard whispers... nah. Might be some avid imagination of his or something. Who would want to even follow him around? Okay, he was not really handsome or ugly but then again... he was not the type of person girls would have fallen in love at first sight right away. Ryo was a likelier target... hehe, though it would not be so bad if he have his own swooning admirers, heh? _  
  
“Is he stupid? Why did he start grinning to himself?”_  
  
Shige looked behind him again as he thought he heard voices again. Was he imagining things? Shige shook his head silly. He was getting too paranoid...  
  
He paused in front of his house gate as he searched his pockets for his keys. He cursed at himself when he could not find it.  
  
“Maa... Ryo, should be inside right?” Shige said to himself as he hesitated to call his name aloud. But what if his mother was at home too? Wouldn’t she get suspicious if she saw them being nice to each other? Should he just ring the bell... he should, right?, he thought again before jumping in surprise as he heard the sound of the gates being unlocked.  
  
Ryo opened the gates before him as he stared at him, puzzled.  
  
“What are you doing... Shige? Forgot your keys again?” Ryo asked as there was a hint of amusement in his voice.  
  
“Yes—“ Shige replied, embarrassed before looking at him in concern. “Was mum home?”  
  
Ryo shook his head as he let Shige in.  
  
“No... she went out earlier, not sure where. I was just about to go to sleep before seeing you outside—“  
  
“Ah! Really... sorry about that. It totally slipped my mind today—“  
  
“Nah... it’s because I’ve just taken my medicine earlier—“  
  
Shige appeared worried. “Are you all right?”  
  
Ryo laughed it off. “I’m okay! Geez... you worried as much as Keii-nii! I’m fine... just feeling a bit feverish. I guess it’s because the cut in my forehead got infected somehow, that’s what the doctor yesterday said... and I took a long time to get it checked—“  
  
Shige nodded it off before noticing the new bruise on Ryo’s left arm. He frowned.  
  
“Ryo... did mum hit you again?” he asked as Ryo immediately denied it.  
  
“No! I’ve just fallen off the stairs earlier, so I had tried to break my fall—“  
  
“That was the same excuse mum had used to explain to the neighbours—“  
  
“No really... it’s true. I have been feeling light-headed earlier—“  
  
“Seriously?”  
  
“Seriously! Ah... you guys worried so much! Auntie wasn’t even in her awful mood lately so there’s nothing like that.” Ryo exclaimed as Shige shrugged.  
  
“Then... you shouldn’t have overworked yourself as well. You’re still not well enough, yourself—“  
  
“And risk having her with her unpredictable tantrum thrown at you? Nope!” Ryo replied at once as Shige threw his bag towards the house before loosening his uniform. “Then I’ll help out. You still had some chores left, isn’t it? Let me finish it while you rest for a while... mum not going to be back for a while anyway.”  
  
Ryo shrugged as he let the argument die. “Suit yourself...” he said as Shige already sped towards the back of the house, where he spied the still unfinished basketful of laundries. Ryo snickered before glancing back towards the gates. Did he imagine it? The road in front of the gates had been empty but he swore he saw something earlier...  
  
Seeing nothing, he shrugged as he picked up Shige’s bag before entering the house.  
  
xxx  
  
“Ryo-tan looked even more skinnier...” Tegoshi said softly as Massu patted his shoulders. “I never thought... it had been this bad.”  
  
“We’ll do something...” Pi said as the other three friends nodded their heads.   
  
It had been just an instant, seeing Ryo at that distance and to see him actually tried to be strong despite it was clear that even Jin was worried about his safety. And he didn't even know Ryo before today! But somehow, all five of them vowed to at least do something for this  _new_ friend—old friend for Tegoshi—whom they had just accidentally came to know about...


	6. Maze

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And the road goes around and elsewhere. What kind of surprise can you find at every corner?

Somehow, lately he had started to notice something. His stepmother had been out so often lately and even though she had not really let her guard down on ensuring that he would remain having his freedom constrained inside just the boundaries of his home, she had not really minded for him to go out. Sometimes, he had tried to get home a bit later than how he usually did whenever he went out to the market for groceries. Usually when he had took his time out too long, his stepmother would start throwing things around at him to demand to know where he went. Lately, she had not even bothered. Not even when his two stepbrothers had been away to protect him, until he thought that his stepbrothers paid attention to him more than his stepmother.  
  
Normally, he would be glad for this turn of events but somehow right now, he could not even feel rejoiced. It was like there was something that going to happen in future that would explain such strange period of  _peace._  
  
Could it be paranoia? Couldn’t be...  
  
Lately, he kept noticing a peculiar car parked in front of their house at times. Sometimes, when he had went out... he would happen to see that car left the compounds of his house. Whenever he didn’t, his stepmother often told him to stay in the house and not allowed him to go out to check the car out.  
  
He had never seen the face of the person driving the car. Half the time when he did, it would be either too far to see any detail or that his view was hidden. He wondered if there were any meaning over these strange incidents. What could that someone want to do with his stepmother? Moreover, what could that someone want with  _him_? His stepmother obviously did not want him to see that person who frequently had come to his house for a visit.  
  
He had noticed as much when one day out of the blue, his stepmother had dragged him inside the house and told him to stay put in the middle of his laundry chores. Just because that person happened to arrive in front of the house when he had been outside as well.  
  
It was really strange...  
  
“You seemed to be having some serious thinking there, little one.”  
  
Ryo blinked as he looked up in front of him in surprise. Murakami, one of Suba-san’s part-timers for the store was staring back at him from his counter before smiling. For some reason, the guy kept insisting to be called Hina for some reason. He wondered why...  
  
“Hina-san... hi. Yeah... I was supposed to be buying something—“ Ryo started to say as he searched his back pocket for his shopping list. Where was it anyway?  
  
“Ah! Put that aside first, you’re not busy right? Hang around here for a while... the day was still early.”  
  
Ryo paused as he looked at him strangely.  
  
“Did you need me for something? Is Suba-san not in? I didn’t see him today...”  
  
Murakami shrugged.  
  
“Shibutani-san had some errand to do, so it’s just me for now.”  
  
The older guy pulled Ryo into the store as he sat beside the older guy. “So Ryo-chan... I’ve been wondering for a while, you’ve not attended school for quite a while... hasn’t it? I was curious for some time...”  
  
Ryo shrugged.  
  
“Yeah... because I couldn’t afford to. I mean... Suba-san might have told you. My dad passed away a long time ago... and I also had two stepbrothers around my age. My stepmother couldn’t afford to have all three of us schooled so... well, that’s how it was decided.”  
  
“But I heard that your brother also had worked part-time during the weekends at some coffee shop—why didn’t you take some part time jobs to support your family? It was a bit unfair to not allow you to go to school,  _just because you’re her stepson_ ,” he asked again as Ryo sighed.  
  
“Stepmother wouldn’t let me. Anyway... at least she took care of me.” Ryo said simply without trying to elaborate. Both of them continued chatting as some customers arrived to the store...  
  
xxx  
  
“Ryo-tan!”  
  
Ryo could barely register the voice as he felt his body being rammed and hugged tightly. The person who had been hugging him had started to sob as he let go of him for a bit. Ryo’s eyes widened as he recognised the person.  
  
“Tegonyan?” he exclaimed as he heard chuckles coming not far from him. He turned to find four other lads smiling at him, one of them had been the one person he thought he would never had a chance to meet again. At least... not so soon.  
  
“Hi...,” said Pi as Ryo nodded at him. Tegoshi hugged him again as he turned his attention towards his old friend.  
  
“How did you found me?” cried Ryo as his voice sounded as if it was about to crack.  
  
“Hina-chan was my cousin... and I heard that Pi had accidentally met with you. So I really thought it was you! Oh my... I never thought I could see you again, Ryo-tan! I missed you so much—“, cried Tegoshi as both of them embraced again.  
  
Murakami chuckled. “Now, now... run along you two. I bet your friends outside were getting frustrated, waiting for both of you to be done. Ryo-kun, come back later to get your groceries...”  
  
“Thank you, Hina-chan!” cried Tegoshi as Ryo said the same before Tegoshi dragged him out of the store excitedly...  
  
xxx  
  
“How much you’ve grown... Ryo-tan!” Tegoshi exclaimed as Ryo slapped his hip hard before the former started laughing like mad. Pi grinned as he noticed how Ryo had appeared different when he was with Tegoshi. The older lad seemed a lot more relaxed and friendlier than he had imagined he could be. Ryo turned his head towards him as he noticed he was being watched and his cheek flushed. Tegoshi grinned as he slapped Ryo’s back hard before laughing.  
  
“Pi-chan! I never knew you’re such a flirt. Ryo-chan was already embarrassed by the attention he’s getting—”  
  
“I-idiot!” Ryo stuttered as Pi grinned. So that was how Ryo-chan was like, somehow he was grateful for that accidental meet with the young man a week ago.  
  
“And it’s not like I’m going to remain chibi all this time! I might not get as tall as Hide-nii... but at least I get to be tall. My father weren’t exactly short last time I remembered—” cried Ryo again as Tegoshi continued to laugh, having a lot of fun teasing his friend.  
  
“Oh, that reminds me—“, said Pi as he took out his guitar. “I’ve asked you if you’d like to learn guitar last time, do you want to answer that question now?” he grinned as Ryo appeared slightly bashful.  
  
“Umm... well, Shige did give me his old guitar...” Ryo said almost too softly, but Tegoshi could still hear him.  
  
His younger but almost equally cheeky friend shoved him towards Pi as Tegoshi chirped. “Go on then! You might be good with it, Ryo-tan!” he said as Ryo’s face started to flush deep red.  
  
“Idiot! Stop it... I probably gonna suck—“  
  
“You’d never know before you try,” said Jin finally. “If you can’t understand what Pi taught you, there’s still me. I could also teach you—“  
  
Ryo could not say anything against that as the rest of them started to give him proper introductions and all. In no time, both Pi and Jin had cornered him to start teaching him the basics of playing guitar while at the other corner of the studio, Ohkura, Tegoshi and Massu did their own activities. They took a bit of time at it before Ryo started to notice that he had been hanging around them a bit too long and decided to excuse himself. That surprised the five of them as Pi hastily grabbed Ryo’s arm to stop him.  
  
“Wait Ryo!” he started to say. “Why’s the hurry? I mean... if it had been troublesome for you, we’ll help you shop after this—“  
  
“I’ll ask Hina-chan to drive you to your house as well!” said Tegoshi as Ryo immediately paled.  
  
“No,” he said, shaking his head vigorously. “You guys can’t go near my house...”  
  
“Why not?” Pi asked again. “Is there something wrong about going to your house?”  
  
“Ryo-tan! We overheard it... that day. Your stepbrother was in the same school as we were... and we sort of followed him back to your house. Had you been abused? Was that why you have stopped going to school since three years ago?”  
  
“You guys had it wrong... it’s not—” Ryo started to say before he hastily left the studio without a word. Tegoshi and the others just stood there, not knowing what to do as they could barely hear the word of apology from Ryo before he disappeared.  
  
xxx  
  
The next day, Shige got an unexpected surprise as five students that he never met grabbed him the moment he entered class and dragged him to the roof.  
  
“Now tell us, what’s been going on in that house of yours?” one of them had started to say as Shige look at them in confusion.  
  
“What did you guys want to know that for?”  
  
“Enough with trying to evade the question!” the youngest of the boys started to shout at him. “We saw you that day at your house talking to Ryo-tan! What had happened to him? What was it that Ryo-tan didn’t want us to know about that house—“  
  
“Calm down, Tesshi—“, said another lad as he pulled the second one away from him. Shige frowned.  
  
“You guys know Ryo?”  
  
“Like hell we did!” cried the youngest one again as Pi got his attention again.  
  
“Tell us. Was Ryo being abused in that house of yours? Why was it that he didn’t go to school like you?”  
  
Shige bit his lips.  
  
“Did Ryo tell you guys anything—“  
  
“If he did, we won’t be asking you,” said Jin—who had grown tired of the narrator trying to let their identities to remain obscure in this scene, revealed his identity—as he pursed his lips.  
  
Shige sighed. “I’ll tell. It’s not like you guys can do anything either. Even my brother and I could do so much, and still nothing had changed—“, he said as Shige started to tell them about everything, summarized of course. He shrugged as the five of them went silent.  
  
“Why won’t you take him out of that house?” Pi asked as he barely gathered his thoughts aloud.  
  
Shige smiled weakly.  
  
“As far as I know, Ryo had no one else any more beside me and my brother... and my mum. Aside from that, that house was all that he had. Even if my brother and I wanted to get him out, he would still refuse to leave. So if you guys have no more things to ask me, I’ll excuse myself."  
  
Shige started to walk towards the stairways as Pi stopped him. He was about to say something at him before Pi cut him off.  
  
“What if I tell you something that you could do for Ryo? Please... hear us out. Don’t you want Ryo to have at least a bit of a normal life he deserved?”  
  
Shige stared at him patiently as Pi started to explain his plans to him...


	7. Not Quite Extraordinary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The things in life that seemed to be so simple and ordinary. Is such thing possible for his reach... or is it something that he could only dream to have?

Ryo shut himself inside his room as he sat on the floor beside his bed.  
  
It bothered him. It still did. It was already been two days, yet to him... it felt as if it had only been yesterday he had met Tegonyan and the others. Too bad that the day had ended like that, he wondered if they were still mad at him.  
  
It was not like he did not want to spend the day with them. Actually, he was really happy. It had been so long since he had any friends... he used to think that his old friends had forgotten about him. But that day, Tegonyan...  
  
When they mentioned about coming to his house, a sudden sense of fear clung onto the core of his heart. His stepmother had never liked seeing him happy. And he remembered about that old lady who used to come visit him. Lately, he rarely got to see her passing by the house. He had been concerned about that and later overheard that the old lady had accidentally tripped during her walk in the park nearby. That was understandable. The old lady’s relatives might have insisted to have rest in the house until she gets better.  
  
What worried him though, was that the  _accident_  happened a few days after the old lady had inquired about his injuries. He only recently found that out but it scared him. What if the accident was his stepmother’s doing? She after all had been going out so often lately...  
  
He could bear with the abuse and hurts if it was just him. He could not if others were also dragged into it because of him.  
  
Ryo sighed as he took out Shige’s old guitar under his bed. Pi’s and Jin’s words to him that day came back to him almost at once as he idly strummed the strings of the guitar. The sound that came out of the guitar was not of any melody that he had heard before, just something that he idly made up. It was not such a bad sound, in fact... it probably just as nice as those other melodies that he had heard people play.  
  
Could he be gifted with composing music? Nah, couldn’t be.  
  
He wondered if he could even explain it to them, if he ever got the chance to do so. It was complicated. If it was possible, he wanted to also live a more normal life. A life where he would be loved. But still, he did not want to later become someone else’s burden. Because he thought that might possibly be the reason. Having him around might have been a burden to his stepmother for so long. She might have possibly hated him because of that—but that wouldn’t explain that part where his stepmother used to want to  _love_  him specially...  
  
Ryo snickered. Why on earth did he want to justify his stepmother’s actions towards himself?  
  
He played again on the guitar as another strings of melodies came about. Tegoshi... Pi... those four new friends that he had met that day, they seemed to be having fun and enjoying each other’s company. Something... that he thought he could only dream about for so long. Somehow now, he started to become more and more afraid. Not of himself... but of others. Back then he could still be defiant of his stepmother because he thought he only had himself to care about. But knowing that he had so many people who had cared about him... somehow it struck fear onto his heart. What if... one day his stepmother would hurt those people that he cared about.  
  
It was not unlikely... but she could, right?  
  
Even if they were his own sons...  
  
Ryo sighed again as he continued playing. He started humming some words... random things that he had been thinking about at the time.  
  
“ _The usual words I never thought could exist in my own dreams. The frequently heard all around... that one melody...”_  
  
He snickered to himself. What kind of cheesy lines that he had thought of...  
  
“ _How nice if it reached... you, only you. How nice if you’d hear...me, only you. If it could reach you... If you could hear me...”_  
  
“That’s a nice verse you’re singing, Ryo.”  
  
Ryo jumped as he looked up towards Keiichiro. Keii smiled before he sat beside him.  
  
“So I’ve heard that you’ve made some new friends. Met some old ones as well,” he smiled again as Ryo looked at him in confusion. “Shige told me. Your cute friends had rounded him out to ask about you. Why did you never tell about this?”  
  
Ryo stared at the guitar.  
  
“It didn’t matter. Not like it was important any more.”  
  
“Who said? Here... Shige was waiting outside. Your friends were waiting for you tonight, you should go have fun. I’ll handle mum so she wouldn’t find out about this.”  
  
“But—“ Keii placed a finger on Ryo’s lips as he whispered.  
  
“Trust me.”  
  
xxx  
  
So that was it had been. Keii had sneaked Ryo inside his room where he had opened one of his windows and showed him where the fire escape ladder had been. Ryo had never notice this before so he never knew about this. So Ryo had climbed down to the backyard where he had quietly sneaked pass the back door where Shige had been waiting. Several meters away from his house, he was suddenly jumped by Tegoshi who suddenly insisted that he changed his clothes—what the fuck? In the streets?—as somehow... after much pressing, Ryo did changed. But not in the streets where people might see but there was a nearby restaurant...  
  
Both Shige and Tegonyan took him towards the nearby city complex where Pi and the others had been waiting. They said that some night they did this, perform by themselves in the streets just for fun. They insisted that Ryo joined them, at which Ryo at first tried to refuse. Since they not only asked him to play—that time when they first taught him the guitar, they had already noticed it. Ryo’s playing was a bit rough but he had a good sense of melody—but also to sing. Ryo was a bit flustered, doing that inside his room was not that bad. Finding out Keii-nii had been eavesdropping on his playing was not bad either. But doing it in public? Honestly... what kind of craziness—?  
  
But somehow the others managed to convince him otherwise. He only managed to squeak out something initially, mostly because he was still too embarrassed to sing in public; but Pi and the others had joined him and before he realised it, he had been having such fun. Even Shige liked his performance.  
  
Kinda embarrassing though to hear many of the passers-by stop by to compliment him—mostly about how cute he looked, how good his voice were... how sweet was his melody. Ryo was not very good at that, and he often had froze and stuttered whenever that happened. Shige and the others had laughed at him about it but it was not like he could stop feeling shy. It had been fun while it lasted. And Tegonyan and the others escorted him again back home to ensure his safety as well as Shige’s.  
  
It seemed to be such a good night.  
  
Until they climbed back into Keii’s room to see one of his eyes bruised and his lips cut. Both of them had started to worry as Keii told them it was okay. Ryo’s stepmother had not yet found out that the siblings had helped him, just that she was angry to find Ryo nowhere inside the house. She had blamed Keii for not noticing this and hit him, but the damage was not so bad. The woman had sworn to punish Ryo heavily about this later but Keii had hastily intervened and said that  _he_  would be the one to do that. There should be no need for her to be concerned about it, he had reasoned.  
  
All in all, Ryo was still worried. It was lucky that the stepmother did not know of other things Keii and Shige had done for him, he’d imagined that Keii would have had worse punishment if she knew.  
  
xxx  
  
It made him very aware about his own situation. He had thought about cutting off ties to Tegonyan, Pi and the others—despite the fun they had together—but Keii and Shige would not accept it. So much later... they had discussed for a better way for them to spent time together away from the house without having his stepmother find out about it and hurt anyone else involved with it. For the next few weeks, it had turned out fine... and no one had been hurt.  
  
Sometimes on some nights, even Keii-nii had joined them in their gigs. It had been fun. Ryo never thought he would have any chance to experience happy times like this ever in his whole life.  
  
At one point, he almost even forget about his stepmother. Or the things that she done towards him.  
  
Little did he know that there are  _other_  worse things that his stepmother could be capable of doing...


	8. OPEN YOUR EYES

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When the truth finally come out in the open, what kind of disaster could have waited for them?

Ryo smiled at Tegoshi as both of them walked back to his house from the market.  
  
“Honestly, Tegonyan... you shouldn’t have to do this. I can carry the groceries by myself—“  
  
“Nonsense! And it’s Sunday... I haven’t had anything planned today so I might as well hang around with you. What—? Were you worried your stepmother would see us together, Ryo-tan? Don’t worry... if she wanted to do something, I’m a good runner!”  
  
Ryo laughed as he sighed. “Yes, I was worried about that too... but if you didn’t mind—eh?”  
  
Tegoshi glanced at him strangely as Ryo’s attention seemed to be diverted to his house.  
  
“What was it? It there something wrong, Ryo-ta—“  
  
“ _That car was here_.” said Ryo mechanically as he dashed towards his house. Not sure of what had just happened, Tegoshi ran after Ryo as well...  
  
xxx  
  
“So, Toyama-san... because of this, I really need to have a word with Ryo-kun. It was part of Nishizawa-san’s last wish and Ryo-kun was already reaching that age. It was Nishizawa-san’s wish to have his son run his business in his place and it was time to entrust him with the rest of the inheritance. Since Hide was still missing... Ryo’s the only one left to—“  
  
Yuko slammed her hand on the table beside her. “No! Never. I won’t let you do that. Besides... Ryo was not in any condition to be able to—“  
  
Sounds of bags of groceries being dropped onto the floor caught the attention of the two adults as Yuko gave a cry to see Ryo standing before them. She stuttered as she failed to find something to cover up the situation.  
  
“So this was why you did not want me to go to school, wasn’t it? The reason why you never let me meet any of my father’s friends or colleagues, and why you never let me venture out of the house by myself! How could you? How could you do this to me—?”  
  
The man that had been talking to his stepmother stood as he walked towards him. “Ryo-kun! Finally... there’s something I wanted to talk to you about—”  
  
Without warning, Yuko suddenly got up and pushed the man away from Ryo before grabbing Ryo towards herself. Tegoshi gave a cry as she picked up a kitchen knife from the table and held it over Ryo’s neck. The man exclaimed loudly at this as Yuko glared at them madly.  
  
“Stay away from me or I’ll kill this boy!” she exclaimed. “Now get up and walk out of here... slowly. Don’t make any stupid moves...” Yuko warned again as Tegoshi and the man could do nothing but obey her commands. Ryo felt his whole body shaking as the knife’s sharp edge barely touching the skin of his neck.  
  
Yuko suddenly threw him aside as she raced towards the door to lock it shut. Freed for the moment, Ryo ran towards the stairs as he headed towards his stepmother’s room upstairs. His first thought had been on that drawer in her room where he had seen her kept some of her valued documents safe. Ryo hastily searched with all his might as he found a folder with his father’s name written on it. His eyes immediately darted towards the highlighted portion of the document as he gasped.  
  
It was a copy of his father’s last will. And the highlighted portion was all about the details of his father’s inheritance that should be passed to him and his older brother. Details that neither him nor his brother had found out before this—and just then, a wallet dropped out of the folder. He opened it to find his brother’s identification card in one of the card slot inside the wallet. The wallet was empty of course aside from the card, but still—could his stepmother have anything to do with whatever that have happened to his brother in the past?  
  
Before he had time to dwell on that thought, Ryo looked up and saw his reflection in the mirror in front of him as well as his stepmother raising her knife to stab him. He quickly evade the attack as the knife only cut his arm. He hastily crawl his way out of the room—putting Hide’s wallet inside his pocket—as Yuko noticed that he had been holding the copy of the will in his hand.  
  
“GIVE THAT BACK TO ME!” Yuko screamed as Ryo dashed out of the room.  
  
“No way! This thing was rightfully mine!” he screamed back as he headed towards the stairs. Yuko caught his arm as Ryo fought to get her grip off from his hand. She tried to get the folder off from Ryo’s grip as he stubbornly held on to it.  
  
“Let go! LET GO OF ME!” Ryo screamed before realising that he was now standing on air...  
  
xxx  
  
Tegoshi started to cry profusely as he held onto his phone, slamming on the door to get it to open. The other man also had tried to ram the door open without much effect. They’ve heard some screams from inside the house, so Tegoshi was really afraid that something bad was happening to Ryo-chan. He glanced back towards the gates as finally Keiichi, Pi and Jin arrived.  
  
“Thank goodness. Keii-san! Hurry... open the door! We must save Ryo-tan!” cried Tegoshi as Keii hastily took out his house keys to open the door. He seemed to recognise the other man but said nothing. His worries escalated as he heard some crashing sounds before the lock was finally opened.  
  
All of them hurriedly entered as Keiichiro noticed his mom kneeling at the foot of the stairs. He was about to call out to her before seeing the other figure lying on the floor beside her.  
  
“My god.... RYO!” he cried as all of them dashed towards the stairs before the man who had come in with them pulled Yuko away from Ryo.  
  
“Oh no, Ryo—“, cried Pi as the rest of them could not utter a word.  
  
Ryo was lying sprawled on the floor, eyes still partially open as a pool of blood started to form near the place where his head had landed. Keiichiro could not speak as he stared towards his brother, feeling helpless because he have not been able to protect his brother. Tegoshi suddenly gasped as everyone’s attention turned towards him.  
  
“Ryo-tan is still alive!” he exclaimed as everyone glanced back towards Ryo.  
  
True enough, Ryo’s eyes had moved slightly... and it seemed that he was trying hard to speak. Ryo tried to move his left hand as Tegoshi grabbed his hand.  
  
“Jin! Call for an ambulance now!” cried Pi as Jin said that he already did. He looked over to Ryo worriedly as the older lad moved his eyes shakily between the three of them. Ryo’s eyes stopped towards Keii’s direction as he started to cry.  
  
“K-Keii... nii...”  
  
Keii gasped as he carefully leaned over to hear better.  
  
“What... Ryo?”  
  
“...nai! U... nai... yo...”  
  
Keii tried to look reassuring to him as he took Ryo’s hand before squeezing it gently.  
  
“It’s going to be okay, Ryo. Don’t be afraid. Help is coming... stay put there, little brother.”  
  
Ryo continued to cry regardless as his head nodded sideways, passing out.  
  
xxx  
  
Shige, Ohkura and Massu ran up towards them as Keii, Pi, Jin, Tegoshi and an older man turned towards them. They were all at the corridors opposite the emergency room, since Ryo’s operation was still ongoing. Shige collapsed on a nearby bench after Keii finished explaining the situation to the others.  
  
“I can’t believe this... I had been hoping something like this would not happen.”  
  
The older man bowed apologetically towards the youngsters as he spoke.  
  
“I’m very sorry. If I had known Yuko would react like this, I would have tried to reach to Ryo using another way—“, he started to say as Keii patted his arm.  
  
“It’s not your fault, Inagaki-san. You didn’t know... and mother almost always tried to keep Ryo under a tight leash. If only I have known you’ve been looking for Ryo as well, I could have also—“  
  
Inagaki smiled weakly. “It’s not your fault either, Keii-kun.”  
  
“Who’re you?” Shige started to say as Inagaki bowed apologetically.  
  
“Sorry for not introducing myself earlier. I’m Inagaki Goro—“  
  
“He was Ryo-chan’s father’s lawyer,” Keii added as the rest of them nodded.  
  
“I’m also Ryo’s father’s good friend and his legal guardian. I’m sorry it took me this long; I could have prevented that incident with Hideaki-kun as well if I knew about Yuko. But all these time, Yuko had been very elusive when it came to the matter of the two siblings. And a few years before, I’ve been abroad for work so I haven’t had any chance to find out anything until now. I know it’s too late to say this now—“  
  
The twin door suddenly opened as several of the medical personnel wheeled Ryo out of the room before the doctor walked out to meet Inagaki. The two adults started to talk between themselves as the youngsters followed the medical personnel towards Ryo’s hospital ward...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Random trivia: Many of the cast names (male) are mostly taken/based from the JE cast. V6's Nagano Hiroshi was used as a base for Ryo and Hideaki's father. While some names are the exact copy of the original cast names, some others are mashed together to fit the setting of the story.


	9. A Butterfly's Dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So the prince continued to wait until the day his beautiful princess would wake up from his--*narrator got bombed* Ryo: Nothing to see here... read along... 8D

All six of them were quiet as they watched Ryo’s sleeping form on the bed from outside the glass room. If that was what you call sleeping. Several wires had been attached to Ryo’s body, his head heavily bandaged; his left arm as well. A tube had been inserted into Ryo’s half-open mouth to aid in his breathing. The whole sight was not something that you would feel relieved to witness.  
  
Inside the room, Keiichiro sighed to himself before walking up towards Ryo. He ran his hand over Ryo’s pale face before exiting the room to face Shige and the others.  
  
“I guess I’ll leave today in your hand. Watch over Ryo for me.”  
  
“The others too...” Keii added, as he glanced towards Pi and the rest of the gang. “I appreciate that you guys cared for Ryo as well, but don’t push yourselves too much. Your parents might worry if you guys stayed here until too late.”  
  
Keii walked towards Shige before patting his shoulders.  
  
“I might be home late, so don’t bother waiting for me.”  
  
“Where are you going?” Shige asked as Keii shrugged.  
  
“I still have to settle mum’s case at the police station with Inagaki-san. So it might take a while.”  
  
“Will you guys be all right?” Pi suddenly spoke as Tegoshi, Massu, Jin and Ohkura glanced up to him. Keii smiled weakly.  
  
“I—we’ll manage. It’s not like we’re totally on our own now. There’s still Inagaki-san... and we still have to stay strong, for Ryo’s sake.” Keii nodded towards them as he walked out into another set of corridors, where Inagaki-san had been waiting for him...  
  
xxx  
  
It has been several weeks since then and Ryo’s condition had not changed much. He and the others had set up an agreement though. They could not all come visit Ryo everyday together, every time. But they could not just let Ryo be alone at any time. Keii still had to do his part-time work and take care of the house, and all of them had their school stuffs. So they had set up a plan so that on a different day, one of them would take the time to watch over Ryo at his hospital room. And today, it was Pi’s turn.  
  
Pi shrugged as he stared at the bunch of flowers he had been holding on his hands. Ryo might not be able to appreciate it with his condition right now, but at least his room would not feel so cold.  
  
Pi frowned as he saw a young man walked out of Ryo’s room. The man was not someone he knew or seen before, so it struck him curious as to who the man was.  
  
He entered the room to see Ryo sleeping, still the same as the few days he had come visit. There was another unchanging thing inside the room as well. The dead flowers in the nearby flower vase had been changed again and as always, a single Carnation bloom adorned the vase. The others had noticed the same thing as well during their routine visits. They had occasionally brought flowers when coming to visit Ryo, changing the water daily and throwing away the dead blooms. Therefore, it had puzzled them when they noticed that the flowers had been watered and changed, as well as the ever present Carnation flower. They had asked each other about it, and neither had a clue about it. Pi’s thought went back towards the man earlier. Could that man be the one who did it? Why? And it had always been in secret, if he had not thought of coming early today he might have missed the guy.  
  
Pi shook his head as he grabbed a stool to sit beside Ryo.  
  
“Hello. It’s my turn again...” Pi spoke. The doctor had told them earlier; if possible... to talk to Ryo even if it seemed that he might not even be able to hear or understand what they were talking about. Sometimes, it could help. Ryo might be able to wake up again.  
  
Then again, that was the reason they had took turns to watch Ryo. The seven of them had not lost their hopes for Ryo to be able to recover someday.  
  
Pi chuckled.  
  
“You know... today I’ve been thinking about you. There’s been some plans... the end of year is in several weeks from now. Some of the guys had thought to play at Shinjuku, you know... it’s like to see how we had improved in our playing all these times. When I heard of that I thought, if Ryo could recover... wouldn’t it be nice? You did play the guitar well... and your voice wasn’t so bad also—“  
  
Pi glanced back towards Ryo before he started, almost falling off his chair. Ryo had opened his eyes! Surprised over the unexpected change, Pi hastily ran out to call for the doctors...  
  
xxx  
  
Shuuji did not know what hit him these few weeks.  
  
As usual, he had gone to the hospital to see his doctor for the usual check-up. Nothing much had changed, he had wondered for a while now if his conditions would ever improve. It has been several years now…  
  
But then one day he happened to take a different route to leave the hospital after seeing his doctor. It was then that he saw it, no…  _him._  It must have been such an accident, when he saw the medical personnel wheeled a young lad away followed by a group of other young boys around similar ages; for that young man to have been injured so badly. Somehow… suddenly, he had felt concerned about the young man that he happened to see that day.  
  
At least, that was what he had told Tsubasa when he had returned home. Tsubasa had laughed at him, to have suddenly taken an interest on someone he never knew. He had laughed at himself too.  
  
Since then, the image of that young boy never left his mind. So the next day, he asked about it at the hospital. The young boy appeared to be a victim of an abuse for quite some time. But on that day of the incident, something happened at the young man’s house and somehow, the young man’s stepmother pushed him off the stairs. It was lucky that the ambulance managed to arrive on time. The boy could have died if it had been any later.  
  
Somehow… hearing that story had made Shuuji feel very sad for some reason. Poor kid, he thought. At first, he thought of just visiting the kid once… just so he could at least ease this unexplained desire to comfort the child. Not like the child would know, he was in coma… but Shuuji himself had been in an accident few years ago, so he really understood such feelings. That first time when he sneaked into that boy’s hospital room, he suddenly had this unexplained feeling growing in his heart. The child was hurt so badly, it hurt his heart to look at him. Without thinking, he had gently touched the young boy’s cheeks as he sat beside the bed. The feel of the boy’s skin did not feel so strange to him; strangely, as he took hold of the child’s hand.  
  
Shuuji had sneaked a glance at a medical board placed nearby as he saw the boy’s name.  
  
“Ryo…”  
  
He had glanced back towards the kid again as he smiled weakly. It was then and there he decided that he would visit this child as frequently as he could until this child would become better.  
  
xxx  
  
“There you are. I thought I’d find you here…”  
  
Shuuji grinned as he walked out of the hospital towards him.  
  
“I see you’ve found some kind of a special person here, seeing you visited here almost every day. I never heard that you have to go visit your doctor every day… so who is it? Did you have a crush or something?”  
  
Shuuji laughed at him. “There’s nothing like that… idiot. It’s just that there was someone that I had an interest with—not a crush, you! Come on… aunty must have sent you to find me, isn’t it?”  
  
“Keii-san! Thank goodness you’ve arrived!”  
  
Shuuji turned around to see a young man running towards the hospital entrance as another young man greeted him. If he was not mistaken… he had seen those two. Weren’t those two among those young men who had accompanied Ryo that day when the kid was admitted to the hospital?  
  
Imai Tsubasa stared at his friend, irritated. It was obvious that his friend did not heard his reply earlier or even anything that he said just now. He slapped him as Shuuji looked at him almost amused.  
  
“All right you idiot… we’re going home!”  
  
xxx  
  
 _They were at the beach, all four of them. They were having so much fun. He could see his mother smiling at him from the shore as his father came by much later, carrying his baby brother around as the little kid giggled happily. His mother was very pretty… and his father—well, he was his superhero…_  
  
 _His mother had called him back. He had turned around and waded through the seawater to reach them. Reaching the shore, he ran as fast as he could as his parents’ voice continued to call out his name. His mother opened her arms to catch him as he got closer to them…_  
  
Shuuji jerked himself awake as he almost fell off his bed. He sighed.  
  
Ah, it was only a dream…


	10. Unconditional

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone, at some point of life... wished to be loved.

Wonder why he would still come to visit the kid again? Shuuji sighed.  
  
Perhaps for some reason, seeing that kid… brought again hope in his heart. That he would finally remember…  
  
It could not just be mere coincidences. On that day when Ryo had his accident, he was feeling very ill. It was not just him losing his appetite or something. His head had started to hurt, his chest had been feeling as if a knife has pierced through his heart—he had been feeling very, very ill that even Tsubasa’s mother was worried. So that was the real reason on why he had gone to the hospital for a check-up…  
  
He wondered if there was any real connection between him and Ryo. He did feel it though, that connection. Whenever he looked at Ryo… he always had this feeling that he'd known this young man for a very long time. And lately, he had started to have some kind of random flashbacks. Were those images and pieces from his long lost memories? Or just something that he unconsciously made up because he had strongly wished to regain his memories? Please god… let that be the former. He couldn’t stand it if it had all been false memories…  
  
Shuuji entered the room to find Ryo looking back at him. The tube in his mouth had been replaced by another type of breathing apparatus as he was now conscious.  
  
 _Oh… that must have been the cause for the alarm yesterday…_  
  
Shuuji glanced at his watch. Yeah, it was still early. The usual times he had chosen to come to visit Ryo. He grinned to himself. Those kids must have been baffled, they must have wondered who was it that had visited Ryo, mysteriously; besides themselves of course.  
  
He grabbed a stool as he sat beside Ryo.  
  
The position of Ryo’s head was leaning a bit towards the direction he was sitting at the moment, but he knew better. Ryo’s eyes might be open… but he’s probably not aware of his surroundings. Shuuji chuckled to himself bitterly. Well, there’s at least a bit of similarity between them. Shuuji himself had been suffering from a head trauma few years ago. It was not something that he was proud about… but perhaps that was one reason why he felt drawn to Ryo. Though he doubt the reason for his injuries was similar to Ryo’s.  
  
He just hoped that Ryo could recover perfectly as he did. Though, he himself couldn’t say that he  _did_ recover  _perfectly_. His injuries might have healed… but he had lost every memory of himself that he might have had.  
  
Shuuji glanced towards Ryo as he noticed beads of sweat lined the side of his face. He smiled as he took a piece of cloth from a nearby basin and wet it with water. He dabbed the cloth at the side of Ryo’s face before continuing to do so on the rest of Ryo’s face and neck. Ryo continued to stare at him as Shuuji could have sworn that the young boy had smiled.  
  
“You liked it, huh? Being clean…” Shuuji spoke as he leaned closer to kiss Ryo’s cheeks.  
  
“You have to get well… Ryo.”  
  
xxx  
  
Keii dropped the paper bags on the dining table before turning his glance towards the stair. He sighed. Hard to think that the incident happened several weeks ago. Since it felt as if it had just happened yesterday. Keii bit his lips.  
  
All of this happened just because of money. How stupid was that? Just because Ryo’s father had left him and his brother half of the family’s inheritance, she had kept Ryo imprisoned at her side to ensure that the second half of the inheritance did not slip from her grasp. And he thought when his mother had decided to marry Ryo’s father, that he and Shige would lead a normal life; having a proper father for a change. Their lives in the past for certain had been hard but what was harder were the taunts they used to get from the neighbourhood kids. They used to give Shige and him rude names just because they did not have a father. As if the fact that their real father had left them when Shige had not even born yet was their fault. At least after his mum remarried and they had transferred schools, the taunting stopped. They had a father now, even if they were not related by blood. But that’s still okay for him.  
  
Ryo’s father had been a nice person. Hide used to say something like his father was his greatest superhero, his own Ultraman. Keii used to laugh at him about it. How come someone who had been older than him could still say something as silly as that?  
  
But deep inside, he had been a bit jealous. Hide and Ryo’s father was such a great man. He wondered if he ever could be proud of his real father like that. Probably not.  
  
He saw it, after those people had taken Ryo to the hospital. He saw the folder containing a copy of Ryo’s father’s last will on the floor near the place Ryo had fallen. His mother had probably pushed Ryo down when she tried to get that folder back. He also found a bloodied knife in his mother’s room and remembered the long cut on Ryo’s arm. Mother must have tried to kill Ryo as well.  
  
Wonder when his mother had turn into this kind of person he did not recognise? Inagaki-san told him several days ago that they might put her on trial but also to announce her mentally unstable.  
  
Mentally unstable...  
  
That should explain a lot. But he wondered since when she had been like that? Could it be after his real dad had left him... or after Shige had been born? Why did Hiroshi-san have to fall for someone like his mother? If he hadn’t... Ryo and Hide would have had led a different life. Then again, so did both him and Shige.  
  
Perhaps it had been fate...  
  
Keii sighed. He’d better prepare dinner early if he wants to go visit Ryo today. Shige would probably throw a tantrum if he comes home and finding the house empty of ready-to-eat food. He glanced towards the clock on the wall. Four o’ clock. Well, he still had a lot of time. He grinned to himself; it was very amusing to see Shige acting close to being spoilt... perhaps because he had been paying more attention to Ryo for the time being.  
  
Ahh... sibling love. How he loved it to bits...  
  
xxx  
  
He felt happy. He never thought he could be feeling so happy like this. Strange as to how seeing Ryo every day could brighten his day like sunshine on a clear spring day.  
  
Of course, it was not because Ryo remained bedridden being the cause of his cheery mood. But more to the fact; to him, Ryo’s condition seemed to be improving every day. Somehow, that lightened his heart. Talking to Ryo as well, for some reason... he just loved to do so. Not sure what made him kiss Ryo’s cheeks earlier but somehow, he could not help himself.  
  
He loved Ryo. It seemed so strange; he had only seen Ryo just in these few weeks. The only thing he knew about Ryo was that of his own name and how did he ended up in that state. Yet he loved him all the same.  
  
Shuuji frowned.  
  
What would happen next once Ryo finally become aware of himself? What would happen to  _him?_  Could he see Ryo again after that? What would Ryo think of him then, a stranger who happened to care about him purely by chance?  
  
Should he stop visiting Ryo at his room then?  
  
For some reason, even thinking that thought alone already given him such a painful feeling inside his heart.  
  
xxx  
  
It has now been two months and half. Ryo’s condition continued to improve. Whether it was because of their collective effort of visiting him every day and/or the visit from the unknown person who had always left behind a single Carnation flower by Ryo’s side; by this point, neither of them had cared about it. All that really mattered was that Ryo had gradually become aware of his surroundings. Keii had noticed it, a few days earlier. That Ryo had shown a slight reaction to his presence or when he had called his name.  
  
Pi also had noticed it, and Tegoshi had been overexcited when Ryo had blinked at him when he had called his name. They had consulted the doctor about it, fearing it was just them being too hopeful. But even the doctors were optimistic about Ryo’s condition. It was not really common yet not too rare for head-trauma patients like Ryo to exhibit such a speedy recovery. It could either be a miracle... or Ryo had a very strong will to survive, to allow himself to heal so rapidly.  
  
It was certainly a very good news to hear.  
  
Or at least, it supposed to be.  
  
Lately though, Pi had noticed. The presence of that single flower on the vase inside the room had slowly becoming scarce. He wondered if that person that he once saw before had decided not to visit Ryo so often anymore. He wondered what the reason was. Then again he was only wondering why the person had started to visit Ryo in the first place, but that answer was no longer important to him.  
  
He wished he could meet that person properly one day, if only to thank him for cheering Ryo for so long.  
  
Pi sighed as he turned his attention towards Ryo. To his surprise, Ryo had been staring at the empty vase as well. A stray tear slid pass Ryo’s cheeks as Pi gently wiped it away.  
  
“You missed him as well, did you Ryo?”  
  
Ryo’s eyes slowly moved towards his direction as Pi saw the saddest expression that he had ever seen worn on Ryo’s face.


	11. Torn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Separation, yes... it hurts.

“So… why are we gathered here for?” Shige asked as he took a seat alongside the others as the six of them gathered at the cafeteria.  
  
Pi cleared his throat as the others turned his attention towards him.  
  
“I wonder if any of you guys had noticed, Ryo had really become aware of his surroundings?” he started to say as Tegoshi cocked his head at him.  
  
“Pi-chan, didn’t we already know that? Ryo-tan had started to become aware about us. I think all of us had noticed that he did react a bit to us being there with him—“  
  
Pi shook his head. “No, I mean… really, REALLY aware? I’m not sure how to explain it… but I think he’s depressed. That’s why lately… his recovery started to get slow again—“  
  
“What are you trying to say?” Ohkura asked as Pi explained.  
  
“Did you guys remembered about how we used to notice that there was another person that had visited Ryo and leaving that single flower behind for him?”  
  
Jin frowned. “You’re still at it? Hadn’t we used to discuss it last time that it could have been a nurse or some of the hospital staffs doing that? What were you trying to sa—“  
  
“It was not. I  _know_. Because I saw that person last time. I know it must be that person who had left the flower every time and took care of Ryo before we came to watch over him every day.”  
  
Massu nodded. “O… kay, so what were you saying, Yamapi?”  
  
Pi sighed. His friends could be so dense and clueless sometimes…  
  
“That person… I think, had stopped visiting Ryo. I think also… Ryo had been aware of that person for quite some time. I’ve noticed also, that he seemed a bit depressed about it. About that person not coming to see him again.”  
  
Tegoshi frowned. It troubled him that he had not noticed this before.  
  
“How did you know about this, Pi-chan?” he asked as Pi sighed.  
  
“He cried, yesterday. I had almost missed it but Ryo had been staring at that empty vase for a while. And Ryo was looking at me after that. He seemed to know that I’ve noticed it. I really—Ryo had been looking very sad.”  
  
Everyone went quiet, as the only noise around them had been of the others students in the cafeteria. Shige was quiet as well… but somehow his quietness had been unnatural. Everyone turned towards him without thinking as Shige looked up towards Yamapi.  
  
“Did you still remember the face of that person?” he asked as Pi shook his head.  
  
“He had been so far that time. I could barely get a closer look. Why? Do you have any idea of who that person was?”  
  
Shige shrugged. “I’m not sure. Hearing what you’ve said you saw, I had the craziest idea—But it can’t be. If it had been  _that_  person, I can’t understand why he would be hiding who he was from us. I… I don’t know.”  
  
Shige’s expression had been pained. Tegoshi frowned, could the person Shige had thought of had been…?  
  
xxx  
  
Keii slowly lifted Ryo to a sitting position as Shige helped him out by putting on Ryo’s new pyjama for him. He smiled weakly as he watch Shige buttoned up the shirt before Keii lowered Ryo back on his bed. He grabbed the comb from the nearby cabinet and started combing Ryo’s hair so that it would be a bit more manageable. Shige grinned as Ryo’s expression remained unchanged.  
  
“For some reason, it was kinda funny to see us doing all this with Ryo acting all stoned—“ he said, chuckling as Keii threw a stray pillow at him.  
  
“Shush you! And don’t start saying that Ryo’s like our life-sized doll or something—“, Keii started to say as that prompted even more laughter from Shige.  
  
“ _You’re_  the one saying it, not me!” he said, feeling amused too much before noticing that Ryo’s eyes seemed to sparkle… looking at him. “Hey, even Ryo find it funny…”  
  
Keii smiled at his stepbrother as Ryo slowly cast his eyes towards him. He frowned as he followed Ryo’s gaze towards a certain vase. Immediately, he recalled what Shige had told him about Yamapi’s earlier observation. Keii glanced back towards Ryo as the lad seemed to be looking towards him now.  
  
“Ryo, did you saw that person visiting you before? The one that always left behind those Carnation flowers. Did you saw who was that person? Did you know him?”  
  
At once, Ryo’s expression started to change as he struggled to speak. It seemed to be such a hard task to do as tears started to fall from Ryo’s eyes. Unable to witness it anymore, Keii embraced Ryo again as he started whispering some comforting words to his ears. Shige bit his lips as he silently watched them from a corner…  
  
xxx  
  
Tsubasa frowned as he watched Shuuji spacing out at the cashier counter. He walked by the counter as he gently pat his arm.  
  
“You know, Shuu… if you missed that kid so much, you should go to the hospital to see him.” He said as Shuuji looked at him in disbelief.  
  
“No. I can’t… the kid had already been healing up pretty well. I should not interfere with that. Besides, I’m not the one the kid needs right now. I’m not related to the kid after all.”  
  
Tsubasa laughed mockingly at him. “Hah! You sure could have fooled me. You looked as if a girlfriend had dumped you! Admit it… you loved the kid. And oh! Before you could say anything to deny it—“ he said as Shuuji seemed to want to argue with him, “—who said that you cannot be related to that kid? You don’t even know who you really are yourself! Don’t you want to find out the truth about yourself? Why should you be running away now?”  
  
Shuuji blinked at his friend before smiling weakly. “Tsubasa. Did you want to throw me out of your house so desperately now?” he asked as Tsubasa grinned.  
  
“Perhaps…”  
  
xxx  
  
Pi walked across the hall as Keiichiro greeted him not long after, taking Ryo out on a wheelchair for a bit of fresh air. Pi knelt before Ryo to greet him as Keii asked him to look after his brother. Apparently there was something that the doctor treating Ryo had wanted to tell them but Shige seemed to be having a bit of difficulty to understand what they were saying. So he hastily called Keii for help, at which big brother have had to help. Pi grinned at that as he looked up towards Ryo, still kneeling in front of him. Ryo still appeared expressionless but at least his eyes were alive…  
  
He sighed.  
  
“We still could not cheer you up much, huh?” Pi said as his phone suddenly rang. He turned it on, as the reception appeared to not be good. Pi bit his lips as he asked a passing nurse to watch Ryo for a while as he ran off to get a better signal…  
  
xxx  
  
“This was a bad idea…” Shuuji started to say as Tsubasa dragged him across the hall. “This was a very,  _very_ bad idea—“, he started to say before both of them turned to find Ryo sitting on a wheelchair by himself, while a nurse was standing nearby chatting with another nurse attending to the information counter. Tsubasa smiled before running towards them as he talked to the nurse for a bit before  _kidnapping_  Ryo away to bring him towards Shuuji.  
  
Shuuji suddenly become flustered as both of them slowly arrived in front of him. He almost wanted to run away at once before noticing that Ryo had looked up towards him. That froze him to his spot as he knelt down to greet the young man.  
  
“Hi… long time since I’ve seen you, eh?” Shuuji started to say, nervously…  
  
xxx  
  
Pi ran back towards the area where he had left Ryo as he noticed that the nurse, to whom he left Ryo with, had been alone. He was about to panic before noticing Ryo not far from there… with two guys—at which one of them looked familiar…  
  
The man seemed to have noticed him coming as he appeared alarmed and appeared to want to leave immediately. His friend seemed to be against it but the guy seemed to be adamant. Pi was alarmed, he shouldn’t be leaving now—there were a lot of things that he wanted to say…  
  
Yamapi was about to quicken his pace before noticing the man had paused.  
  
As he got closer… he found out why. Ryo had reached his hand out to grab the man’s jacket to stop him from leaving. Pi gasped aloud. That was the first time Pi had seen Ryo actually moving since the day Ryo was admitted to this hospital…  
  
xxx  
  
Shuuji felt like his heart was about to burst the moment he felt the pull on his jacket. He could guess who did that, but he was afraid to turn and look. Tsubasa gave him a stern glare before he relented and turned around. Right away, his tears started to fall.  
  
Ryo had looked at him, pleadingly. His expression was so sad, Shuuji could not turn away. Shakily, Ryo started to shake his head. His lips had started to move as well. As if he wanted to speak.  
  
Shuuji lowered himself again as he knelt in front of Ryo. Ryo’s hand immediately let go of his jacket and grabbed his hand.  
  
“What is it… Ryo? What was it that you want to say?” Shuuji spoke as Ryo seemed to have troubles to form even the simplest of words. But when the words finally took form, Shuuji felt as if his world had just turned over upside down.  
  
“O… nii… chan. Hi… de… onii… chan!”, Ryo started to say as Pi gasped. Shuuji looked up towards him as he realised he had not been dreaming. Ryo did call him…  _his brother!_  
  
Shuuji stared straight towards Ryo as he shook his head.  
  
“No… Ryo. It must have been a mistake. I’m not—I’m not your brother,” he started to say, despite his heart had hoped that it was true. But he could not give himself or Ryo false hopes about something that might not be true. He couldn’t—!  
  
Ryo shook his head again as he started crying.  
  
“No… you are… nii…,” he said again as Ryo tried to get up from the wheelchair. Shuuji exclaimed in alarm as Ryo collapsed towards him before he caught him.  
  
“Ryo? Ryo!” Shuuji cried in alarm as Ryo had passed out. Tsubasa and Pi just stood frozen, as they did not know what to do.  
  
“RYO!”  
  
Suddenly, another shout was heard as Shuuji looked up to find another two persons running towards them. The older of the two stopped several steps from them as he gasped in disbelief.  
  
“Oh my god! Hide… it was really you!”


	12. Loving you Desperately

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kizuna. Bond. To break it apart, certainly such feat would be almost impossible to be done by just one person.

Shuuji stared at the person in confusion.  
  
“Hide... who?” he asked as Shuuji unconsciously hold Ryo close to him. The person looked at him in disbelief.  
  
“Oh my... don’t tell me all this time, you—“  
  
“Keii... is he really—?” the other boy spoke as Keii nodded, still staring at Shuuji’s face.  
  
“My eyes cannot lie. You’re Hide... there should be no mistake! Don’t you recognize me? I’m Keiichiro!”  
  
“He can’t remember. It has been like that for a few years already...” Tsubasa started to say as Shuuji hissed at his friend.  
  
“Tsubasa... enough. You don’t have to explain—this was just an honest mistake... it must be!” Shuuji started to say as Keii placed his hand on his arm.  
  
“No, it’s not. Come... we talk at Ryo’s room.” he said as Shuuji lifted Ryo in his arm while he carried Ryo’s wheelchair along. Pi and Shige started to explain themselves towards the gathering crowds as Tsubasa followed the two along...  
  
xxx  
  
“So you’re really saying that Shuuji was actually Nishizawa Hideaki, Ryo-kun’s real brother?” Tsubasa asked as Keii nodded. Shuuji looked at him sceptically as Keii walked towards a cabinet to take out an old wallet.  
  
“Look at this.” he said as he opened it and showed Shuuji the content of the wallet. That is... the  _only_ content inside the wallet.  
  
It was an identity card, belonging to one Nishizawa Hideaki... bearing the same appearance as Shuuji’s. Tsubasa leaned over to take a look of it as he gasped.  
  
“It was the same!”, he cried before explaining to the others. “The first character of Hideaki’s name! It was the same!”  
  
Shuuji looked up towards his friend suspiciously.  
  
“What did you mean... Tsubasa?” he asked as Tsubasa shrugged.  
  
“You know how we used to tell you about how we’ve found you? That time... it looked like you had been a victim of a hit-and-run, we couldn’t find anything of your belonging anywhere and you’ve been in such bad shape yourself. We thought the bastard that took your belongings must have taken everything that had been with you at the time. Though I wondered what was so valuable that a high schooler like you could have brought to make the bastard stole all your things.” Tsubasa rolled his eyes at Shuuji as he paused.  
  
“You were wearing a gakuran outfit after all!” he said before continuing, glancing towards Keii and the others. “We took him to the hospital... you know, he had really terrible injury. We’ve tried to find out who he was... but we couldn’t find any ID. And just then... we found this torn exam slip Shuu had been holding tight. The writings on it were mostly smudged... or covered with blood, so we can’t read much on it. But there was one word that seemed almost intact. So since then, we’ve been calling this guy Shuuji.”  
  
Keii gasped.  
  
“Exam slip... you say?” he asked as Tsubasa nodded.  
  
“That day when Hide had gone missing... he was about to go to the university he applied to, to check on his entrance examination results,” Keii said, still in a daze. But if these two stories really matched, then it could be possible that Shuuji really was...  
  
“What a minute! You guys are jumping to conclusions now.” Shuuji started to say. “There’s no guaranty that I am really this Hideaki you’re talking about. I might just have similar names with—“  
  
“And similar face with Hideaki? Same coincidence of involving in an accident three years ago?” Keii started to say as Tsubasa intervened.  
  
“Coincidence that you felt ill the same day Ryo-kun got hurt?”—Keii, Shige and Yamapi stared at Tsubasa in surprise—“Coincidence that you felt drawn towards Ryo-kun? Shuu... there are too much coincidences to consider these things as totally unrelated. You’ve said yourself that you felt a very strong attachment towards Ryo-kun! Hell! Even Ryo-kun  _believes_  that you are his brother! You can’t just ignore that!”  
  
“But!” Shuuji cried painfully as he glanced towards Ryo who was now asleep on his bed. He ran his thumb over Ryo’s fingers as he continued to hold Ryo’s hand tightly.  
  
“What if... we’re really not related?”  
  
Shuuji’s voice shook as the others went silent. It was obvious that Shuuji himself wished that he really was Ryo’s older brother.  
  
“There is a way.”  
  
The five youths turned towards the entrance as Inagaki-san appeared.  
  
“We do a Sibling DNA testing on both of you. It gonna take a while... but Shuuji-kun, I hope you would agree to this. It’s not just to finding out the truth about yourself, this is for Ryo-kun as well. If you really are Hideaki-kun, Ryo-kun would need you to be with him by his side really badly.”  
  
Shuuji just nodded, as everyone let out a sigh of relief...  
  
xxx  
  
“Let’s go?” Shuuji started to say to Tsubasa as he stood up, before noticing that Ryo’s hand had still been holding onto his wrist tightly.  
  
Keii sighed.  
  
“It seemed even in sleep, Ryo doesn’t want to let you go.”  
  
Shuuji let out a half-hearted grin. He sat again on his stool before leaning close towards Ryo’s ears.  
  
“I’ll come again tomorrow. I promise.” he said before giving Ryo a quick kiss on the forehead. He rose again as finally Ryo let go of his hand.  
  
Shuuji and Keii joined the others outside as all of them started towards the elevator to go home.  
  
“Hi—Shuuji-san. Would you really come here again tomorrow?” Keii asked as Shuuji nodded.  
  
“I’ve promised, right? And, I don’t feel like lying to Ryo...”  
  
Tsubasa grinned as Shuuji elbowed his friend on his side. Keii smiled, before another thought crossed his mind.  
  
“Shuuji-san... umm,” Keii hesitated. “I know that we’ve only just had you take the sibling test today and the result would probably not be out so soon—but would you mind if I ask you to come to our house at Asahina-cho? That house was still the same... some of the things might have been thrown away but the most important things that used to belong to Hide and Ryo’s family were still intact. Shige and I had been retrieving a lot of the stuffs to give back to Ryo after all.”  
  
Keii had been explaining some bit of their family stuffs earlier to Shuuji to explain their relation to Ryo, just in case something might have triggered any bit of memory but so far, there had been no reaction. The main link to unlocking Shuuji’s memories seemed tied strongly with Ryo but considering so far Ryo’s condition was not too convenient...  
  
Shuuji sighed.  
  
“All right, it’s still worth a try. I’ll come to your house.”  
  
xxx  
  
Since then, Shuuji had started to visit Ryo frequently again—sometimes with Keii, Shige or the others—as he accompanied Ryo in continuing his rehabilitation programme. It was nothing much, most of it he had already experienced before and he was comfortable with the therapists who handled Ryo’s case. And it appeared that Ryo had cooperated well with the therapists again. To which, Keii had commented that it must have been because Shuuji was with Ryo.  
  
Which later, Shuuji find it hard to not feel glum about. Because of these turn of events, he started to grow even more attached to Ryo. That caused him to think about the impending results of his and Ryo’s DNA test.  
  
What if the result later told them that they were not related? What would happen then? Of course, he could still maintain this relationship with Ryo like this. But then, it would feel like he was acting as a substitute brother to Ryo and he wondered if that would be the right thing to do. Ryo would probably not mind… but he  _would_. Being the actual blood-related brother and acting like one were two completely different things. Of all things, he did not want to disillusion Ryo into accepting him as his brother if it would later be proven that he was not. It was cruel to let Ryo live in such lies.  
  
But seriously… he had to prepare his heart.  
  
xxx  
  
Shuuji held his breath as Morita-sensei, the doctor who had been the one taking care of their DNA test results slowly pulled out the folders from his cabinet. Ryo was sitting on his wheelchair beside him, looking as if the result did not matter as Ryo’s stepbrother, Keiichiro stood nearby for support.  
  
He tried to smile to calm himself but he was too nervous! He had been worrying about the results of this test for days now…  
  
“Shuuji-san…”  
  
Shuuji turned towards the doctor as Morita-sensei looked at him calmly, without expression.  
  
“From the test results of the blood sample that we have taken from Ryo-kun and you, we have found out that—“  
  
xxx  
  
Few minutes later, Keii walked out of the doctor’s office as everyone got up to see him.  
  
“What’re the results saying?” Ohkura started to say.  
  
“Shuuji’s really the brother, right?” Pi asked.  
  
“The doctor did not say it’s not, didn’t he?” Tsubasa asked worriedly.  
  
“Come on, COME ON! Tell us what was the result!” cried Tegoshi while jumping up and down as Jin and Massu tried desperately to calm the young one down. Shige was quiet as he glanced at his brother before another running footpads alerted Keii to see Inagaki-san arrive in front of the office, panting.  
  
“Sorry I was late, got a client meeting. So how’s the result?”  
  
Everyone stared expectantly towards Keii as he broke down, grinning ear to ear.  
  
“It is confirmed. Shuuji really was Hide-kun,” he said as tears started to fall. He wiped the tears hastily as he opened the door behind him. “Finally… a  _happy ending._  I thought it would never happen!”  
  
The boys started to peek into the office at the same time as Inagaki-san joined them, taking a look at the two siblings that had finally reunited after so long being apart.  
  
Shuu—Hideaki was still crying as he held the doctor’s hands gratefully.  
  
“Thank you… sensei. You don’t know how this result mattered so much for me,” He started to say as the doctor shook his head.  
  
“I know. You’re Kimura-sensei’s patient as well, aren’t you? I remembered hearing from him about you and your amnesia—“  
  
Hide nodded his head as he wiped his tears away. It was proven, finally confirmed! He was really Ryo’s blood-related brother! He finally got a home… he finally returning back to his own family!  
  
He turned towards Ryo as he saw that Ryo had been crying as well. He smiled as he took out his forgotten handkerchief in his breast pocket to wipe the tears from Ryo’s face. He laughed as Ryo’s hand slammed into his nose as he tried to do the same for him.  
  
“Told you… didn’t I?” Ryo said smugly. “You are… nii. You… don’t believe.  _Baka nii_ …” he said again, slowly as Hide grinned and pulled Ryo into his embrace.  
  
He started crying again as he squeezed Ryo’s body tightly against his own.  
  
“I love you, Ryo. I really… really do. Seriously, I love you so much!”  
  
Keii smiled from afar, as he saw the tip of Ryo’s mouth curved upwards.  
  
“I… missed… you… too.”  
  
Several chuckles and giggles broke the otherwise tearful scene as Hideaki pulled himself away from his brother to look at his onlookers. He smiled as he saw Tsubasa looking at him with satisfaction on his face.  
  
“You’ve finally found your home,  _Shuu.”_  
  
Hide could not stop himself from smiling.  
  
“Aah…”


	13. Taking Flight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After regaining that pair of wings thought lost, what else would you do but to just fly as far as you can?

“Welcome. Or should I say, welcome  _back_... Hide.” Keii started to say as the four of them entered the house. Tsubasa started whistling, looking around the house as Hide paused. Keii noticed the direction where his eyes had been staring as he sighed.  
  
“Yeah. That’s where Ryo-chan had fell,” he said as Hideaki frowned at the faded blood stain on the otherwise white marble tile.  
  
Tsubasa and Shige turned around towards them as Hide glanced elsewhere.  
  
“Did anything here trigger your memory yet?” Keii asked as Hide walked around the house, keeping himself quiet all the time. After a while, he had gone up the stairs; followed by the three of them as Hideaki looked around him. Still showing no reaction, no hints of recognition of him having once lived in the house was seen on his looks.  
  
He absent-mindedly walked towards one room before Keii announced it to him.  
  
“That was Ryo’s room.”  
  
Hide looked at him in surprise before entering the room.  
  
He sighed. As expected, he had felt nothing from this room either. Then again, it’s not like Ryo’s room would remain the same as when he was still small. Everything inside the room had been neatly organized—he had to laugh as Keii mentioned about how he and Shige had to run around to properly put Ryo’s things in place because Ryo wasn’t such a good organizer himself. He turned to see the massive rows of padlocks on Ryo’s door as he thought painfully about what kind of life Ryo used to have.  
  
Sighing, he walked towards Ryo’s bed before noticing the small desk beside it—as well as an old hardcover book lying on top of it. It had been a bit dusty—then again; it has been months since Ryo was hospitalized, Keii reasoned—as Hide picked it up.  
  
He opened the book to the most recent entry that had been marked with a simple bookmark. He smiled. It turned out that the thick hardcover book was just another exercise book made to be a personal diary. The last entry had been... what it seemed to be Ryo writing out a song or a long poem.  
  
He flipped several pages more before it as he noticed an entry where Ryo had written off the day’s events, as well as a small note... directed to  _him_. Hide could not help but feel touched. It seemed that despite many had thought he had died or gone for good, he had always been alive... inside Ryo’s heart. Words could not express accurately of what Hideaki was feeling in his heart now. He flipped several more pages behind as the entries seemed to skip several years. Could it be that Ryo had been keeping this diary when he was _really_  small and stopped writing on it, and  _only_  started writing his thoughts and feelings inside this book after he had gone missing?  
  
Hideaki stopped flipping the pages as he came upon a very old drawing that had been pasted onto one of the pages. There was a drawing of a man labelled ‘otouchan’ on it, with an ‘oniichan’ standing beside the drawing... carrying a ‘Ryo-chan’, all written in hiragana. There was also a drawing of a woman with wings floating near them, holding a magic wand as flowers and birds and rainbow surrounded the four people. The people in the drawing had looked happy as well. Tears started to cloud his eyes as he hastily wiped it away.  
  
And that was when it appeared...  
  
xxx  
  
He saw himself running towards a warm looking man, who had been smiling very wide. He had been holding a book, not the same one as the one he had been holding. The man spoke, as he had been holding an small excitable child in one arm.  
  
“ _Ryo-chan! How many times did Otou-chan said, not to draw on otou-chan’s report book?_ ” the man have said, not sounding any bit angry as he appeared to act as the small child continued to giggle happily. The man sighed as he put the small child down before walking towards his worktable and pulled out another book that looked similar to Ryo’s diary. The man smiled at them before carefully tearing out the page where Ryo had doodled his cute drawing on from his report book. He grabbed a tube of glue from his table and started folding the paper before pasting it on the other book he had taken out. Satisfied that he had done a great job at it, the man walked back towards the boys before giving the book to him.  
  
“ _Here... Hi-chan. Take your little brother to the living room. Now you guys can have this new book to be creative on,”_  the man said again as he heard himself cheered...  
  
xxx  
  
Hide collapsed onto the bed before he started to really cry his heart out, holding the book close to his body. Tsubasa, Keii and Shige had rushed towards him worriedly before he told them that it was okay. It was only him, finally remembering one piece of an important memory.  
  
A piece of a memory belonging to him and Ryo, as well as memory of the two of them with their father… when he was still very much alive.  
  
The three of them finally let out a sigh of relief... at Hide finally recollecting something about his past.  
  
The four of them went back downstairs as Hide finally started to recall more memories of his childhood, actually recognizing the house that he used to live in. It was strange. An hour ago he had walked in here, not recognizing any small details of his house. But now, it was like he had just taken a time machine ride back into his own past—almost every single familiar parts in the house would trigger some sort of a fond memory in his mind. He walked outside towards the side lawn of the house as he arrived to a small patch of flowerbeds near the kitchen. There were some empty patches of soil all over the flowerbeds but at least it appeared that the surviving flowers had been thriving…  
  
Keii shrugged as he approached Hide from the side.  
  
“I must have been blind all these time. I should have seen the connection to moment I have seen that first Carnation flower you left behind for Ryo,” he said as Hide glanced towards him. True enough, almost every single flower that was still growing on the flowerbed had been Carnations; in every possible colour there was! Keii sighed.  
  
“Ryo had always taken his time to care for it. Even when sometimes during her more moody days, my mum would come here and destroy some of the flowers—Ryo would still patiently spend his time here to take care of the flowers.”  
  
Hide smiled.  
  
“It had always been her favourite,” Keii glanced towards him. “The flowers. It had been the favourite flower of my late mother. I used to remember seeing my father tended to it, even after my mother had died. He also used to talk in length about how different colours of the Carnation flowers could give a different kind of meaning when presented towards someone else…”  
  
It was strange. Suddenly old memories started to flow into his mind as if he had never forgotten about them before. It was a queer feeling. Such mysterious things, memories are…  
  
Hide glanced back towards Keii as the younger man bowed towards him suddenly. Shige and Tsubasa looked at him, puzzled as well as Keii suddenly started apologizing.  
  
“Hide… I’m sorry. On behalf of my mother, I really am sorry! For what she did to you, to Ryo as well. I am also unsure about this, but if mum really had anything to do with you getting into that accident and losing your memories… I hope you would forgive her for what she did!”  
  
Shige stared at his brother in alarm. “Keii, what were you saying? That mum would—I know she had done many cruel things to Ryo… but this? I can’t imagine she would go so far—“  
  
Keii straightened himself up before turning towards his younger brother.  
  
“That’s why I said I wasn’t sure. But I’ve been thinking about this for so long. What if Ryo hadn’t just tried to escape from mum that day because he had found the lost will? What if… he had suspected that mum might have something to do with Hide’s disappearance. What if she  _did_  have something to do with it?"   
  
That time, he had found Hide’s wallet with Ryo after all—Ryo must have found it around the same time as when he had found that will...  
  
“Keii-nii! Did you forget that mum had tried to  _kill_  Ryo that day? Don’t you think he wouldn’t try to escape her to save his life?”  
  
“But Shige… why else could mum react so drastically when Ryo had overheard her talk with Inagaki-san? There must be a reason—“  
  
Tsubasa hastily stopped the two from bickering as he told them to calm down.  
  
“Stop it. That thing was over already. First thing first, Hide had been acting strange—“  
  
Both brothers turned around towards Hide as the older lad had been clutching his head painfully. Keii started to come at him to ask what was wrong as Hideaki collapsed on the ground. The three of them cried out as they hastily carried Hide back inside the house.  
  
xxx  
  
 _It had been a clear, sunny day. A great day that seemed to promise some good tidings to those who had wished for them. He had been hopeful. That time what he had taken the entrance examination, he had not encountered much difficulty in answering all of the questions. He had been almost confident that he would pass. What great news he would bring home later for Ryo? Ryo must have been restless by now, waiting for him to bring in the great news..._  
  
 _If only his father was still alive… he wished he could show him how well he had done for himself now._  
  
 _He could barely hear the sound of the approaching car behind him. That’s why he had remained cycling close to the edge of the road to avoid the approaching traffic. The road was not too narrow for him to do that after all, there were still enough room for him to cycle along the road and allowing the passing motorists to pass by without a hitch._  
  
 _That was why he could barely comprehend it when he felt the back of his bike being rammed and him losing control of his bike, before another hit from the car behind him threw his body off towards the side road. Hide felt something hit his head, painfully before he fell on the rough soil. He lifted his head in a daze, as he felt strangely lightheaded—his sight seemed blurry._  
  
 _He could barely make out a shadow of a car stopping as two person walked out of the car. For some reason, they were more concerned about his things that had been scattered all around the place; compared to him being injured and bleeding to death. He could barely understand it when one of them had turned his body over and started searching his pockets for some kind of valuable. He felt his wallet forcefully being taken out from his possession as he felt himself being kicked from behind. He ignored that as he still struggled to take back what was his from the person—a man, perhaps… judging from the brute force he had been treated with—as he managed to grab onto something._  
  
 _He had been kicked again as he heard something tore off. He tried to look up towards his assailant as he watched the other person threw his things into the nearby ditch? River? He could not understand what he was seeing as the one who had attacked him gave something—his wallet?—towards the other person. Both of them were talking but he could not catch what they were saying._  
  
 _He barely caught hearing the other person telling the brute person about getting his payment and to ‘clear out the trash’. Hideaki could barely connect the pieces of information as the brute started walking back towards him again…_  
  
Hide gasped aloud as he sat up from the sofa, facing the three people who had been looking very worried over him.  
  
“Shuu—I mean, Hide… are you all right?” Tsubasa started to ask as Keii looked at him troubled.  
  
“Hide… I’m sorry if what I said earlier made you feel uncomfortable—“  
  
Hideaki stared at him in confusion before recalling the earlier incident. He shook his head as he told him not to worry.  
  
“It’s not your fault—“, he said before adding, “—and regardless of what stepmother have done to me and Ryo, you and Shige were not at fault about it. Please don’t push yourself hard about it.”  
  
Keii snickered. “How can you say that? If I had been more competent, I could have been able to protect Ryo much better than what I did…”  
  
“Nonsense!”  
  
Keii stared at him, startled as Hideaki smiled.  
  
“You have protected Ryo…  _and Shige,_ just  _fine_. Just like I would have done for the three of you…”  
  
Keii couldn’t help smiling as he thanked him for the kind words…  
  
xxx  
  
Ryo looked up towards the four of them as he smiled. He had been transferred to another room now, considering that his condition had been improving greatly. Tegoshi turned towards them as well as he chirped his greetings at them. Shige jeered at them.  
  
“Oi, Tesshi. Why aren’t you at home studying for exam or something?” he said as Tegoshi stuck his tongue at him.  
  
“I’ll study later, I’m good like that. Besides… I missed Ryo-tan so much today so what’s wrong with coming here to play with Ryo-tan?”  
  
Ryo grinned. For some reason, Ryo had been looking so shiny today, thought Hide as he smiled. Could it be because of yesterday’s good news?  
  
“Ignore him, Tegonyan. He’s just…  _jeabos_. Jea—eh?”  
  
Ryo suddenly started crossing his eyes, puzzled over his strange pronunciation as everyone stared at him with amusement. Hide chuckled as his brother looked as if his mouth had just malfunctioned. It must have been that, right? There was no way he would be making such silly mistake in speech that made him seemed to sound like a kindergarden kid and not a eighteen-year-old—oh yes, he’s eighteen now. His birthday just happened to be the day after he had fell down the stairs, just that people had not bother bringing that topic up.  
  
Ryo suddenly got himself glomped by Tegoshi who started exclaiming how cute he was, to which he just stared at his old friend for making such strange comment.  
  
“Not cute! What you…?” he started saying as Tegoshi continued to squeal. The rest of them continued to laugh as Keii walked up towards him.  
  
“It’s because we love you so much, Ryo-chan.”  
  
Ryo smiled.  
  
“I love you too. Keii-nii…”  
  
Keii stared at his younger stepbrother in surprise. Even after all of this, despite how he had failed to take care of him… to protect him. Despite what his mother had done to him…!  
  
Keii turned his head to his side as Hideaki placed a hand on his shoulder, giving him a reassuring smile. It seemed that even Ryo did not consider him to be a bad brother, despite his failure to protect his younger siblings. He glanced back towards Ryo as Tegoshi stepped away, before he sat on the bedside and embraced Ryo.  
  
Ryo grinned as he glanced towards Shige.  
  
“Don’t get  _jeabos_. Everyone loves me…” he said as Hide snorted. Shige’s face contorted into a maniacal grin as he lunged towards the two of them—  
  
“It’s  _JEALOUS_ , idiot! Not  _jeabos_. Say it properly!” he exclaimed before tackling them.  
  
“Iyaaaa—! Bad Shige… gerrof! Big heaby… Shige bear!” cried Ryo as Hideaki burst into an unstoppable laughter…  
  
xxx  
  
Yamapi dumped his books on the table as the six of them gathered at that corner of the library, for they were preparing for their university entrance examination that was coming up soon. He glanced up towards Tegoshi and Shige as soon as he took up seat beside Jin.  
  
“Eh? What you saying?”  
  
Shige shrugged at him.  
  
“It’s been decided. They would be going overseas soon, to get Ryo into a much better facility to help him recover faster. At least, that’s what Hideaki-niisan had decided yesterday.”  
  
“How long will they be there?” Ohkura suddenly asked as Shige shrugged.  
  
“Who knows… until Ryo got better? Hide-nii also mentioned that he’d try to resume his studies there. Perhaps also for Ryo… he still had a lot to catch up to after all. It’s going to be a while… I guess.”  
  
Jin shrugged, as he grabbed one of the reference books on the table. “Well, at least that means that we shouldn’t be lagging in our studies then… huh? Even Ryo was working hard—“  
  
Pi nodded his head as he noticed Massu still concentrated on reading his English textbook—despite it was upside down right now—before glancing towards Shige.  
  
“Where would they be heading to?” he asked as Tegoshi shrugged.  
  
“America.”


	14. Life's Iroha

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Life is just another stage...

The five of them were about to storm the room when they heard some hushed voice, talking inside. Curious as to who and what had been talked about, Yamapi and the others slowly turned the door knob open slowly as to not alert the occupants inside of their presence.  
  
It turned out to be only Ryo and his brother Hideaki, as they seemed to be talking in a very serious tone. Ryo seemed to be leaning very close to Hide as Yamapi could swear that he heard some sort of sobbing coming from their direction. Curious of what was wrong, he turned towards the others to keep extremely quiet before glaring at Jin as he had put his whole weight on top of him. Ignoring him, Pi turned back his attention towards the two brothers as Hideaki started to speak again.  
  
” _It will turn out fine. You don’t have to worry so much. You did want to be able to walk normally like you used to… right?”_  
  
Pi could not hear Ryo’s reply as his voice was almost equally soft as his brother’s, and it sounded like he was trying so hard to keep himself from sobbing too hard as well as speak softly. Hide laughed softly as he pulled his brother closer to him.  
  
“ _Silly, they won’t forget you just because you went away for a while. They’re your friends, right? You should trust them a bit more than that,”_ Hide chuckled again as Ryo mumbled something that seemed to amuse him greatly.  
  
“ _Dear… nothing like that would happen. I think… even everyone that knows you at the market district would still remember you. I’ll bet they’ll miss you just as much as you’ll miss them. I saw Subaru-san today, you know? He asked me to tell you to keep up the effort to get well. I told him about us leaving… and he said good luck. He told me that he’d make you something special later after we get back home. After you get well fully…”_  
  
“ _So see… Ryo-chan, don’t be like this. It’s not like you’d be going there alone. I’ll be there with you.”_  
  
Ryo’s sobbing grew even louder as Hide laughed again. “Now… now,” he said loudly. “Don’t cry anymore… you’d look even less cool than you are now if you continue this in front of your friends—“  
  
Taken completely by surprise, Yamapi’s hold on the doorknob slipped as he fell onto the floor, followed by another four young lads crashing on top of him. Ryo glanced towards them and squealed aloud before grabbing a discarded quilt beside the bed to cover himself. Hideaki stared at his brother in amusement before holding him close again, as he turned to check the five lads.  
  
Tegoshi and Masuda cheerfully greeted him as Ohkura and Jin grinned at him sheepishly. Yamapi on the other hand, was preoccupied with his own struggles to free himself from the pile of humans on top of him. Laughing at themselves, the four of them gathered themselves up as Yamapi brushed himself grumpily.  
  
He turned his attention towards Hideaki as he noticed the big lump sitting beside him that should have been where Ryo was supposed to be. Hide grinned.  
  
“Ignore my baby brother. He’s being unusually shy today…” he said as the five approached them closer.  
  
“What’s wrong?” he asked as Hide shrugged.  
  
“You’d probably heard a bit… but  _someone_  was worried that everyone would forget about him once he leaves this place—“, he started to explain as the lump beside him started to protest loudly.  
  
“What the—you can’t seriously think that, Ryo-tan!” Tegoshi exclaimed as Hide laughed.  
  
“See? You’ve got your old buddy mad already… didn’t I tell you just now? And it’s not like we won’t maintain any contact after this with everyone—“  
  
“You got that right!” said Ohkura as well as Jin snickered. Yamapi elbowed him as he tried to keep his face straight. Hide smiled as he pulled the covers away as Ryo’s head popped out from underneath it. Ryo’s hair had been tousled, his eyes and cheeks red, and stained with tears as he looked very miserable. Yamapi sighed as he could not help but feel for him.  
  
“I’ll—we’ll call on you often…” he started to say as Tegoshi nodded.  
  
“I’ve always thought of you as my friend, even after we’ve lost contact for a while… so what’s so bad about not meeting again for a few more years? We’ll still meet again after that!”  
  
“So, enough crying already… if you want, I’ll treat you to ice cream after this,” Massu added as Jin showed his thumbs up at him for suggesting such a  _great_  idea before Ryo threw the bed covers towards them.  
  
“Idiots! I’d get a cold like that!” he managed to say without stumbling on his words as the five started to laugh loudly. Ryo too, started to cheer up as he realized that his worries had all been baseless…  
  
xxx  
  
That had been a week ago…  
  
Few days later, Ryo and his brother had packed up their things for their journey. Hide later explained to them, that Inagaki-san had told them about a rehab centre in America that has been one of the best places over there that specialized in treating and providing rehabilitation treatment for traumatic brain injuries (TBI) patients like Ryo. He thought if they went there, the chances of Ryo recovering from his current condition was better. Not that Japan did not have similar facilities available locally, but the one at the centre had better experience and equipments. Even Ryo’s current doctor recommended that, which was why he had agreed on that decision.  
  
Keii and Shige would still remain living at the house in Asahina-cho, there was no argument about that. Even if  both of them were not related to Ryo and him by blood, they were still their stepbrothers thus _family_. Even after Yuko had been treating them badly, Hideaki had arranged for the best arrangement for his stepmother’s wellbeing. At which later, Hide had assigned Inagaki-san and Keiichiro to be the ones handling the Nishizawa’s properties until they returned.  
  
The send-off at the airport had been well. Ryo had been slightly better than at that time at the hospital. But still he ended up crying very badly when they finally had to part. Like Hide had mentioned before, they did maintained contact between Keii, Shige as well as the rest of Ryo’s friends.  
  
Of course, there was still the matter of the difference in time zones between them; but it was not as if it had posed a big problem to them…  
  
xxx  
  
Yamapi glanced up in front of him as he tried to reach out towards the particular book on the shelf. He pulled it out as he grinned to himself. Lucky… this particular reference book had been pretty rare. Most of the time when he had tried to borrow this book from the library, the book would always often not around—already taken out by the other students who appeared to have the same thought as he did. Frustrating.  
  
It was not like there weren’t any other reference book that he could use. It’s just that… this particular book had the explanations and terms made easier to understand. But apparently, other people think that as well—regardless, he’s got it now! Pi walked out to the counter as he proceeded to check the book out…  
  
xxx  
  
“Ne… did you hear? I heard that particular long-distance student going to finally study here with us! Finally! I thought we’d going to have to spend another year wondering about how that student had looked like in person…”  
  
Pi glanced sideways at the nearby pair as the two girls continued to chat excitedly under the tree. He rolled his eyes at them, but then… it was his fault for trying to read his book out in the open like this. He would have just move away but he was lazy. It’s not like he’s going to pay any attention towards whatever topic those girls were talking about…  
  
“Ah! You mean that one whose creative prose assignment often got praised by the lecturer?”  
  
“Ah, that’s the one! I happened to read one of that student’s poems, you know? It was simple, he mostly wrote about the most normal things that he had seen around him yet… the way he wrote them, it was so sweet. His style of writing was very simplistic but very beautiful—“  
  
Pi leered towards the two girls as both started giggling.  
  
“Ah! Eri-chan! It sounded like you’ve fallen in love with that student—“  
  
“Mou—Makki!” cried the other girl.  
  
“But you know… I heard that the student had been staying overseas for a while, which was why he had taken our course using the distance learning programme. I wonder why…”  
  
The friend grinned at the other girl. “I bet you hoped that the student was a handsome guy, right Eri-chan?” she said as both girls started teasing each other again before noticing that Pi had been staring at them for quite some time. The girls hastily excused themselves away as Pi chuckled to himself in amusement.  
  
But some time later, Yamapi could not help pondering about the things that those two girls had been talking about. Weird. It was not like him to be interested over some random gossip at the university…  
  
Yamapi glanced towards the north gate entrance of the university as a car came in and stopped in front of the administration office. A man came out from the car as Pi paused to take a closer look. For some reason, that man seemed to be familiar…  
  
The man walked to the passenger’s side of the car before opening the car door. Pi squinted at the man as it appeared he was trying to help the person sitting on the passenger seat to come out from the car. He frowned as the man pulled out a metal hand crutch before gently supporting the other person out in the open.  
  
Without thinking, Pi had started walking towards the direction of that car as he watched the first man slammed the car door close. The man that proceeded to help the other person walk towards the administration office before finally Yamapi got a clear look of the two persons…  
  
“Ryo!”  
  
Nishizawa Ryo looked up from trying to stabilize himself to walking with the hand crutch as he caught sight of a very familiar face. He smiled at him as his brother let out a chuckle, surprised at the unexpected chance meeting…  
  
xxx  
  
“Ryo-taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!” Tegoshi called out towards him from afar before running up towards them to jump at Ryo. Pi caught him midway before Tegoshi could land on Ryo and cause some untoward incidents.  
  
“Watch it! Ryo hadn’t fully regained his full strength still. What if you missed and fell on him and hurt him even more?”  
  
Tegoshi grinned at him. “Fussy Pi... you must be feeling very smug now, since Ryo-tan got into the same university as you—“  
  
“Same university... but different faculty.” Ryo corrected him as he slowly walked towards him.  
  
Pi smiled as he pulled Tegoshi to his side.  
  
“But you know, Tesshi... Ryo-chan was certainly  _something_. Even before he formally attended his new class... he already had a new admirer—“  
  
Tegoshi stared at him wide-eyed with wonder as Ryo blushed.  
  
“Hey, Yamashita! Don’t start making up weird gossips! There was no such thing like that happening!” he cried as Hide grinned at them. He patted Ryo’s head as he turned towards Pi.  
  
“Yamapi... isn’t it a bit too early to start making gossips about my brother—?"  
  
“But it’s true! I overheard the two girls talking about it this morning. Then again... I should have guessed it’s about Ryo. Some of the things mentioned by them were the kind of things Ryo used to do... Aaah! So nice... Ryo, how about we later go double date with those girls? Should be fun! They were both very cute after all”  
  
Ryo’s face flushed into a deeper shade of scarlet as he stuttered.  
  
“I-i-idiot Pi!”  
  
Hide chuckled. “So... what was it that Ryo did that got himself a girl falling for him?” he asked as Ryo started crying in agony for the embarrassment to stop. Tegoshi was grinning too much Ryo wondered why hadn’t his face started bursting apart already. Tegoshi’s face looked like it could be as red as his face seemed to feel like, blushing rapidly... but for a totally different reason.  
  
Pi grinned.  
  
“The girl read one of Ryo’s poems he had sent to the lecturer as an assignment. It really captured her heart... I wonder if it’s love at first sight—no,  _love at first read!_  Hahaha—“  
  
“Interesting... I felt like trying to sneak a read into Ryo’s diary again...”  
  
“Onii-san!” cried someone in horror as the brother laughed aloud. Tegoshi laughed as well as he chirped.  
  
“Aaah, that reminds me... Hina-chan and everyone should be ready by now! We should really head to the place for Ryo and Hide-niisan’s welcoming party!”  
  
Pi’s eyes sparkled as he grabbed Tegoshi’s hands.  
  
“Great timing! We should run for it then! Wanna bet if we run now... we’d have enough time to tell the others about Ryo’s secret love story to them before Ryo can catch up to us?” Pi exclaimed as he gave Ryo a cheeky look. Tegoshi grinned as without warning, he grabbed Pi away and ran like lightning towards the appointed venue.  
  
Ryo swore loudly at the sudden movement as he tried his best to chase after them... crutches and all!  
  
Hideaki smiled in amusement.  
  
“You know...  _chibi_ , it would have been faster if we get into the car now...” he started to say as Ryo snapped.  
  
“Nope! That’ll be cheating! I want to prove to them I too can catch up to them by my own effort even if both my legs were wood. And don’t call me  _chibi!_ It’s been too long since you’ve called me that...” cried Ryo as he continued to r—walk speedily towards the direction his fellow friends had been running to. Hide grinned as he skipped towards his little brother and lifted him up on a piggy ride and started running while carrying him along. Ryo cheered as he started waving his hand crutch like a sword across the neighbourhood, not caring if both of them had looked like some idiots running across the road...  
  
Ah...  
  
Coming back home was such a great feeling...  
  
Sometime later as they arrived, still as hyper as they had been hours ago... both brothers greeted again old friends and new, finally reunited for so long as they all cheered for even more happy outcome in their future...  
  
THE END.  
  
And they lived... happily ever after. Because the narrator feels like this phrase should not be left forgotten.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * I based the university description to that of Keio University, Main Branch (Mita campus), since I'm not sure if Meiji had distance learning in their programme (there's so much that I can wiki and google). The setting was during Pi's second year... or almost at the beginning of his third year. Not sure of the length of term they should have... but I figure 3 years should be standard. Assumingly the system was similar to how uni's in M'sia worked. I only know Medicine to take longer than that. And perhaps Engineering...
> 
> * I had Pi take Business and Administration course similar as to the one he take IRL while Ryo taking Literature under Keio's Faculty of Letter. Whether it's Japanese or English... I'll leave that to speculations. XD. Not sure what actual course they have it the Literature course anyway... just pretend that I know. XD
> 
> * Yes the GIRLS! And you'd think we won't even have any mentions of girls in this fic aside from Yuko and the old lady and the faceless girls at the streets. They were based on Horikita Maki and Sawajiri Erika. Or if you prefer Toda Erika... suit yourself. XD
> 
> * Though this was the final chapter, I won't mind writing some bits of off-shots of this in the future. Depends on my muses. XDDD
> 
> So yeah.... hope you guys enjoy reading this!

**Author's Note:**

> Since this story has long been completed I'll just transfer everything over~


End file.
